All's Well That Ends Well
by Rainbowserpent
Summary: James Potter has always been the source of Lily Evans's troubles-he irritates her, teases her, shows off, asks her out all the time, and hexes people for no reason. She always thought she'd hate him forever...but forever is very long time... Rated T just in case
1. Chapter 1:The Insanity of A Dumbledore

**Please note that I do not own Harry Potter/related characters etc, and hope to do justice to JK Rowling's brilliant writing.**

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ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

_Lily Evans's Seventh Year at Hogwarts_

Chapter One

_The Insanity of Albus Dumbledore_

**L**ily gazed out the window, watching the scenery flash by. The hills and paddocks looked so peaceful... and to think that King's Cross, blanketed in smog, was only ten minutes in the other direction...

Lily felt a jolt, and a wave of molten shock flooded her stomach: this would be her last ever year at Hogwarts.

'..._yes_ he was snogging her-it was SO awkward! I know...'

Lily's friends chattered sociably around her. It wasn't _their_ fault she felt miserable, Lily thought sadly. It was Petunia's.

Ever since Lily had first come to Hogwarts, Petunia had been horrid about the whole business. She'd only come to see Lily off in her first, second and third year, but Lily was sure their parents had dragged her along, as she was always so angry and bitter about it. Ever since Lily had turned fourteen, Petunia had resolutely refused to see her to the station, refused to talk about her 'freakishness' and had made a point of telling her friends (and loudly discussing it whenever Lily was around) that Lily 'is mentally unstable and attends a school for weirdos.' Lily felt her fists clench as she heard Petunia's words ringing in her ears.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Lily looked up, and to her horror, saw none other than messy black-haired Quidditch Captain and Seeker, James Potter.

Lily's friends, Mary MacDonald, Jenny Copper, Elizabeth Dewer, Jeannie Morde and Mirabelle Lawkins all went suddenly quiet.

'What do you want?' said Mirabelle harshly. She had about the same level of tolerance and contempt for James as Lily did, because Mirabelle was in Slytherin and the arrogant Gryffindor Seeker kept boasting and jeering whenever he won a Quidditch match against them, which, to Mirabelle's disgust, was fairly frequently.

'I'm here to see Lily,' said James, not looking remotely abashed. The other girls began to giggle. Lily crossed her arms and scowled.

'Look Potter, the answer's no, okay? So just go away would you?'

'What?' James looked confused. Either he _hadn't_ been trying to ask her out again, or he was a very good actor.

'I was...er...what do you want?' she snapped, trying desperately to get on top of the rather odd situation.

'I'm s'posed to tell you to come up to the Prefects' compartment-the Head Boy and Girl have to talk to the Prefects about the rules and expectations.'

'Oh,' said Lily, glancing down at the shiny Head Girl badge gleaming on the front of her robes. 'Er, okay. Guys, when the trolley comes-'

'We'll get you two pumpkin pasties and a liquorice wand,' said Jenny.

Lily smiled and handed her five sickles and twelve knuts. 'I'll be back as soon as I can,' she added.

'Oh take as long as you need,' grinned Elizabeth, shooting Lily a knowing look, 'but promise to tell us all about it.'

Sticking her tongue out at the girls, trying to contain their laughter but failing, she proudly walked out of the door as James held it open for her.

Ignoring her friends' laughter as she stepped out into the corridor and closed the door, she said sharply, 'Where's the Heads' compartment, next to the Prefects'?' Then, turning to look at James, she added, 'I _do_ have to go to the Heads' compartment after lecturing the Prefects, don't I?'

'Yep. Heads' compartment is at the very end of the train,' said James, smiling winningly. He knew she'd thought he was trying to ask her out before, and for some reason, it rather pleased him.

Glaring at him, Lily made her way up the train.

Other compartments were full of excited first-years, students hurriedly finishing the homework they'd been given over the summer, people joking, laughing. Lily even saw the McAdam sisters, Trova and Lorayne, fighting over a chocolate frog card. She stopped for a minute, in time to watch the two girls draw their wands and point them threateningly at each other, before bursting out laughing and hug each other, agreeing to share the card on a roster.

_That could have been Petunia and I_, thought Lily sadly, _we'd be friends if she could have been accepted at Hogwarts. Thanks, Professor Dumbledore..._ she felt a tear slip down her face.

With a loud _thwack!_, someone collided with Lily, sending her flying. She landed sprawled on the floor, her head sore and her temper short. Leaping up she saw none other than Mr Disaster himself. Potter again.

'You right there Evans?' grinned James, reaching out to brush some of the dust from the train floor off her robes.

'Fine, thanks,' she said icily, snatching her robes back, 'do you _always_ have to knock people over?'

'I wouldn't have if you'd kept going-why'd you stop?'

'W-I-look, why are you following me anyway?' said Lily impatiently, quickly wiping the single tear from her cheek and flicking her red hair out of her eyes, 'aren't you and your friends busy picking on first-years?'

'Woa, Evans, you don't think much of me do you?' grinned James.

'Why should I? Muttered Lily, and started back off up the train. She heard James's footsteps behind her. He didn't seem to be going away, so she wheeled around. He walked straight into her, and said quickly, 'Sorry,' as he saw the murderous glint in her green almond-shaped eyes, flashing dangerously at the close proximity between them.

'Look, _why_ are you walking behind me?' she asked irritably.

'Er-why not?'

'Because I will _not_, I repeat _not_, say yes to going out with you EVER, even if you follow me around my whole _LIFE!_'

'I'm not following you,' said James placidly, 'I'm just going to the same place as you.'

'What, the Prefects' compartment?' Lily snorted, 'as _if_! You spend your time doing the sort of things the Head Boy and Girl try to prevent!' she began walking again, striding quickly away, hoping he'd just stay there.

Matching Lily's pace and dashing her hopes, James said, 'Yeah, that's what you would think, wouldn't you-but McGonagall seemed to reckon I'd matured or something, and that I'd be able to help by knowing where everyone hides banned stuff and know which hexes people use and how to counter-hex them.'

Lily snorted. 'Firstly, counter-hex isn't a word, and secondly...yeah right.'

'No really,' said James earnestly, squeezing past her to walk backwards in front of her, unpinning the small silver badge on the front of his robes and holding it out to her. She took it, and glanced at the counterpart to the badge gleaming on her chest. _James Potter? Head Boy? Had Dumbledore and McGonagall gone completely insane?_

They were nearing the end of the train now, and they began to comb through the compartments slowly, searching for the Prefects.

'Oh yeah, and who'd you steal the badge off?' asked Lily, handing it back to him, as they peered into a compartment of fifth-years who were having a competition of who could blow the largest bubble with their _Drooble's Best Blowing Gum_.

'The owl that sent it to me,' retorted James. '_Trust_ me, I sent it back, but McGonagall just got the owl to come right back with an insistent letter as well. She wouldn't let me hand it back in person either, I've already tried when we got on the train.'

'McGonagall's on the train?' asked Lily as they peered into an empty compartment, 'that's unusual.'

'Yeah she says she was visiting the Ministry today to try to convince them to get rid of Divination as a subject or something, as it's a very 'imprecise' and 'lie-riddled' branch of magic. She's in a bit of a mood after speaking to a certain Minister for Magic called Millicent Bagnold. Apparently the Minister's mother was a Seer, so no points there McGonagall. Isn't Millicent a weird name though?'

'Not as weird as the thought of you as Head Boy,' said Lily.

They were still bickering when they got to the second-last compartment, a rather large one with six fifth years sitting in very distinctive House pairs. Lily raised an eyebrow. _Where were the Gryffindor Prefects?_

Lily slid the door open and sat down next to a Ravenclaw girl she only knew by sight. Everybody was silent.

'Hello, I'm Lily,' said Lily, shaking the girl's hand and breaking the ice for everyone else. Once everybody had made introductions and shaken hands (though Lily determinedly refused to shake James's hand when he offered it, causing him to smirk), there was a happy, friendly silence.

There was Adriana Shire and Jason Perdell, the Hufflepuff Prefects; Jane Brite and Harley Spayd, the Slytherin (Spayd and James were having a silent glaring war over last year's Quidditch Cup match, won by Slytherin); Marlene McKinnon and Jaiden Salt for Ravenclaw; and Lily was told that the Gryffindor Prefects were named Leanne Drewmore and Lachlan Zell.

'Well, I say, what a good group of people this year!' said Perdell, 'Professor McGonagall said she would be here at about 2 O'clock...she should be here in about ten minutes,' he added, consulting his watch.

There was a moment of silence, until Spayd said uncomfortably, 'What are you _staring_ at?' James gave him a withering stare and kept on glaring.

'Hey you,' said Spayd, looking at Lily.

'Her name,' growled James, 'is Lily.'

'Yes you, red-head. The mud-blood, tell him to stop st-'

But he got no further, as, at that very moment, James lunged himself at Spayd yelling 'DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO HER LIKE THAT! YOU STUPID, BLOODY, _SLYTHERIN!_' The boys rolled around on the floor, throwing punches at each other and yelling.

'-Not my fault you're a bad loser-!'

'-You cheats! Slytherins are a pack of CHEATERS! You cheated for the Quidditch Cup and now you're rude to Lily-'

'WHO'S THAT MUDBLOOD TO YOU?' screamed Spayd, flailing around, 'Is she your_ girlfriend?_ Oh no wait-the entire school knows she won't go out with you!'

With sudden malice, James knocked the wind out of him and Spayd, clutching his stomach, retaliated just as violently.

Jane Brite had hurried away from the two boys, wresting around and trying to land a punch squarely on some part of each other.

She looked anxious about standing beside Lily, when she suddenly said nervously, 'You're not prejudice against Slytherins are you? My sister told me all Gryffindors loath Slytherins!'

Lily was standing up, arms crossed, watching the boys, 'We only loath the ones that deserve loathing. But one of my best friends is a Slytherin, and she's really nice-do you know Mirabelle Lawkins?'

'Oh yes,' said Jane, 'she is really nice!' and with that, she seated herself next to Adriana and Marlene. They all began talking, just as Jaiden and Jason began discussing international currency.

'Okay you two, you've lost your audience, wrap it up,' snapped Lily as the boys kept rolling around, kicking and punching.

'Don't-insult-Lily!' gasped James, hitting Spayd for every word.

'Oooh, Lily, you've got yourself a boyfriend!' giggled Marlene.

'No I have _not_,' said Lily, grabbing both James and Spayd by the collars of their robes, hauling them apart, and trying to hold them apart.

'Er, Jane,' said Lily, as the boys began to struggle to resume hurting each other, 'could you help me? These two big Quidditch stars need to be kept on chains!'

Jane quickly grabbed Spayd's arm and heaved him onto the seat nearest the window, facing Marlene.

Lily pulled James roughly by his collar and sandwiched him between the compartment door and Jaiden. 'Just get him to stay there will you?' Lily asked the Ravenclaw boy. He nodded and gave James a disapproving glare, to which James looked extremely abashed. Being told what to do by a fifth year?

Lily went and sat down on the opposite seat facing James, with Jane Marlene and Adriana. No sooner had she sat down, then the compartment door flew open, to reveal Professor McGonagall, wand drawn and sparks flying from her eyes.

'What in the _world_ has been going on?'

When none of them answered, McGonagall glared daggers at them all.

'Can you imagine my shock when the Gryffindor Prefects fetched me, saying they had been heading up to the Prefects' compartment when they saw the _Head Boy_ fighting: _fighting_ with a fifth-year PREFECT!'

There was a guilty silence. James (of course) was the one to break it.

'Where are the Gryffindor Prefects?' he said, cracking his knuckles threateningly.

'That,' said Professor McGonagall, stony-faced, 'is none of your concern Potter. And, as I was under the impression that you, as _Head Boy_ had started the brawling, Potter, I was hoping to get some answers out of you. _WHY _do you always get involved in such things? Surely it has to be bad luck and coincidence, otherwise Dumbledore would have seriously reconsider the faith he placed in you.'

James, surprisingly, looked suitably guilty, which surprised Lily, as she was expecting him to laugh it off, or even continue fighting. But no, James Potter said very seriously, 'I'm sorry Professor,' then he got up and strode over to Spayd, just as the Gryffindor Prefects walked in, looking worried for their safety, and took a seat. Lily, worried he'd provoke the boy again, leapt up suddenly, wand at the ready.

But James had held out his hand to Spayd and said 'Sorry,' and they shook hands. Then, with a considerably more hard tone added, 'but don't _ever_ call Lily a...mu...a-that word again, understood?'

Professor McGonagall did not hear the last part of James's reasoning, or the real meaning behind it (you don't call Lily a mudblood and I don't bash you senseless, got it?), as she announced proudly, 'Well, that's more like it. Thank you, Mr Potter. Now, Prefects you have certain responsibilities. The Head Boy and Girl will inform you of your duties.'

Usually, she would leave them to it, Lily knew from when SHE was a Prefect (in fact, McGonagall wasn't usually on the train), but McGonagall did not move. All because of James Potter, who, like a child, couldn't be trusted to be left alone. His behaviour gave her, Lily Evans a bad name as Head Girl. They would be known as 'the worst Heads ever'-_Heads_: she'd get thrown into the mix as well!

McGonagall stood by the door, wand in her hand to prevent any sudden outbursts.

'Er, alright everyone,' said Lily, smiling at them all, 'You're Prefects now-you've been chosen to help uphold the rules at Hogwarts, so you need to set a good example.

If somebody is breaking the rules, you must tell them that it isn't acceptable.'

James gave a little snort.

'You have something to add Potter?' asked Professor McGonagall sternly.

'Uh, no Professor: it's just that Lily tells me what isn't acceptable at least five times a week!' Lily glared. _Thanks for putting me through this by choosing POTTER, Dumbledore. Couldn't you have chosen Remus? He was a Prefect. But oh no, let's make Lily's life hard by selecting the most annoying person on earth_.

'Perhaps, Mr Potter,' said McGonagall, 'Miss Evans tells you with good reason.'

'Okay,' continued Lily, before James could get himself into more trouble, 'the list of rules is pinned up in Filch's office-but DON'T ask to read them, seriously.'

Professor McGonagall looked shocked, and stuttered, 'And why not?'

'Er, because I tried that when I was a Prefect, and he glowered and glared at me the whole time, and kept asking "Are you finished yet?" about every five minutes and muttering about "stupid students" and "time wasters" the entire time.'

'You braved Filch's office? For a bunch of _rules?_ Seriously Evans, you're more hardcore than I am!'

Ignoring James, Lily continued, 'So, bottom line is, don't ask Filch. The basic rules are: no magic in the corridors; if people are found in the corridors after hours unless to go to the bathroom, send them back; no broomsticks to be flown anywhere but the Quidditch pitch;' (Lily looked pointedly at James) 'Fanged Frisbees, Biting Boomerangs and items from the 'Disruptive' section of Zonko's are banned; Prefects and Heads must be obeyed...anything you've been told off for-you know the general run of things. Also, a tip from Edward Hyacynth and Melvia Beacort, the previous Head Boy and Girl: if you have trouble with someone, make up a rule.'

'But,' said Perdell, looking confused, 'if you MAKE UP a rule, they'll know it's fake-and it's not within our rights to just make rules up!'

'Oh really?' said Lily, 'Say I caught...James,' he gave a bow, 'stealing food from the kitchens-' (Lily half-smiled at this: she'd been catching James stealing food from the kitchens since cavemen hunted woolly mammoths) '-I could tell him it was in breach of Rule 73 Clause A, Paragraph 3: "...If any student were to find the location of culinary preparation, they would under no circumstances be liable to request provisions from the culinary staff, as students are fed at three daily intervals and do not require any further nutritional intake.'

James's eyebrows were raised almost up to his hairline, Perdell looked shocked and the other Prefects blank.

'But-why hasn't Professor Dumbledore told us about that-people in our year always nick food!'

'That believable was it?' smirked Lily, looking around at her stunned audience, 'You make it up! Improvise, ad-lib! That's something that has saved my life with James here at least a dozen times!'

James's mouth fell open in shock.


	2. Chapter 2: A SEVERE Excess of Phlegm

**I just want to say a massive thank-you for everyone who reviewed or added this story to their alerts-thanks guys! I didn't expect to have any reviews or anyone reading at all! **

_**DISCLAIMER: I don't even own the name of this chapter! (How sad is that!)**_

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Chapter Two

_A SEVERE Excess of Phlegm_

Hogwarts towered majestically, its turrets and towers spiralling, the whole castle seeming to glow with friendliness. It was amazing, thought Lily, as the horseless carriages trotted up the long, winding drive, that a place so big could look so cosy. She could just see the common-room in her mind's eye now, the squashy armchairs, tables for homework, the bright rugs and Gryffindor colours everywhere, large windows which you could see the wonderful red, orange and pink sunsets from, and, if you got up as early as Lily did, the sunrise, watermelon pink and watercolour blues, reds and oranges.

Or even crisp, white snow on the windowsill in winter, the owls perched there, tapping at the frosted window pane, letters clasped in their beak or attached to their leg...

'Lily!' said Jenny, the laughter evident in her voice.

'Huh?' said Lily vaguely.

Her friends were all already out of the carriage, holding the door open for her.

'Oh-thanks,' she said, jumping out.

'Thinking about a certain someone?' sniggered Jenny, looking over to the carriage beside theirs, where James was just leaping out.

Jenny had always thought Lily _could_ go out with James, after he'd grown up a bit, and now, after seeing his improvement, she quite liked the idea.

Lily blushed: just because she and James had stopped practically killing each other last year, and they were friends now (and sure, she would admit he was _kind of_ nice now), did NOT mean she liked him!

'No,' she said defiantly, as they trudged up to the castle, 'I was thinking about Hogwarts!'

'Sure sure,' said Mary, as Elly and Jenny sniggered.

Mirabelle, clearly not in on the joke, kept asking 'What's so funny?' all the way up to the castle and through the Entrance Hall, packed with students, heading for the Great Hall, from which was buzzing with excited chatter. Elly and Mirabelle went off to their tables, and everyone took a while just milling around and chattering before actually sitting down.

When they had all been seated at their various house tables (and Lily realized, with a strange jolt she couldn't explain that she'd somehow ended up right next to James), and the chatter and general noise of scraping chairs and squeaking shoes had died away, the Sorting began. Lily, seeing all the terrified eleven-year olds, knees knocking and faces pale, remembered HER sorting. She had been so nervous, and her hands had been so incredibly sweaty...and she remembered the pain on Sev's face when she didn't get into Slytherin...no, she wasn't going to think about _him_.

'You know, I wonder whether they ever sorted a different way?' muttered Mary, looking longingly at her plate as 'Reming, Vera!' went to Hufflepuff, 'preferably a way that involved everyone else getting _fed_?'

'Well,' began Lily, 'I'm sure that when the four founders taught here they had their own system, because the Sorting Hat came after their time, right of Godric Gryffindor's head, actually, so they could Sort people when the four were all dead and gone. I think it was after Salazar Slytherin walked out on the others and died-'

'Aaah, Lily, stop chattering, I'm _starving_!' moaned Mary, 'and you're not helping!'

There was a silence while 'Bellview, Gretel!' became a Ravenclaw.

'What's that you were saying about old Slytherin?' whispered James. Lily gave him a look.

'Norring, Leham!'

'SLYTHERIN!'

'Welder, Amy!'

'GRYFFINDOR!'

'Carter, Nigel!'

'RAVENCLAW!'

'_Pleeeeeaaaaaase _tell me Lily,' said James.

'Well...'

'Harding, Kirk!'

'SLYTHERIN!'

'Fuller, Quentin!'

'HUFFLEPUFF!'

'Okay, I give in,' said Lily, 'just stop looking at me like that!'

James grinned, and said (with much less sarcasm than Lily expected), 'I AM sorry Oh Mighty One, please continue.'

'Well we were talking about the Sorting Hat, and just saying they might have had a different system when the four founders were alive.'

Sirius Black, who had been listening over James's shoulder said 'What, a Sorting Boot that you try on? Eew, it would STINK with everyone's sweaty feet being put into it!' Peter Pettigrew, willing to be included, chuckled heartily.

'Isis, Matilda!'

'GRYFFINDOR!'

Professor Dumbledore stood up, as Professor McGonagall tucked the scroll of names under her arm and carried the Sorting stool away.

'I would like, as always, to say a few things before we begin our feast,' said Professor Dumbledore.

'Keep it short and sweet mate,' muttered Sirius a few places up from Lily, 'or I'll chew someone's arm off!'

'Ssh!' hissed Lily, watching and listening attentively as Professor Dumbledore began to talk about the dangers of Lord Voldemort (most people flinched or shuddered at the name, though Lily heard some gasp and even someone let loose a quiet scream), and how everybody must stand firm and together. Lily suddenly heard a noise.

Someone was giggling and talking at the Gryffindor table. _Talking during Dumbledore's speech: WHO knew that annoyed her? One group of people sprang to mind: the Marauders_.

Whipping her head around, she saw James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, sitting in that order, and gazing intently at Dumbledore, giving him their undivided attention. Lily's jaw dropped. _James Potter and his friends were LISTENING to Dumbledore? They weren't mucking about and letting off fireworks, intending to cause a disruption?_ This was news. They hadn't done that at last year's feast-Sirius had made all the Gryffindors's plates and cutlery Levitate over to the Slytherins and whack them over the heads...but that hadn't been at the end-of-year feast: perhaps last year had changed them? Maybe there was a reason James Potter wore the Head Boy badge currently gleaming on his chest, casting beams of light reflected from the candles floating lazily above...

Lily saw Lauchlin and Leanne telling off the two giggly and chattery second years who had been talking, and she immediately felt guilty. Why did she have to blame James? He had obviously changed. She suddenly warmed to him a great deal.

'...and now, without further ado, I have only two more words for you all: tuck in.'

Platters of everything appeared from nowhere, filling the Great Hall with their colour and mouth-watering aroma.

Chicken legs, roast vegetables, soups, stews, rice, pies, quiches, salads, bread and butter, minestrone, shepherd's pie, lasagne, even crisps-and that was just on the section of the table that Lily could see.

Lily began to serve herself some vegetable soup and bread, determined, despite all the delicious-looking meat dishes, to keep the promise she'd made to petunia over the summer about going vegetarian.

Lily found herself unconsciously glancing over at James's plate. He had some salad, quiche, and was reaching for a plate of chicken drumsticks. She didn't know what made her do it-perhaps the heat in the Great Hall was making her confused, or she was doing it out of habit, or some other logical explanation that she couldn't think of-but in a split-second, she found herself reaching for the same platter.

She felt her hand brush against James's, and felt a warm blush creeping up her face. 'Er-sorry...' she muttered, embarrassed.

'That's alright,' said James placidly, taking a chicken leg and smiling at her.

Lily waited for the joke, the tease, the snide comment, with a retort on the tip of her tongue...it never came. She couldn't believe her ears: _nothing?_ None of James's snarky comments or flirty, irritating lines? It had always made her insanely mad, and make her sure he was mocking her, and didn't like her at all when he said that sort of thing.

It seemed so strange, she thought, as the pudding appeared, how she had loathed James so much, and now that he didn't seem to like her so much, she actually found him bearable.

Casting the thought aside, Lily reached for a rich-looking cheesecake, and served herself a large slice. She immediately wished she hadn't as, among the jellies and pastries and fondue and mousse and custard and cream and tarts and towers of sugary substance, she caught sight of a mouth-watering, delicious- looking chocolate cake, generously covered with icing.

_Well_, thought Lily, quickly exchanging her slice of cheesecake for a chocolate, _as a wise person once said: "Forget love, I'd rather fall in chocolate!"_

After everyone was full to bursting, Dumbledore (after reminding them all of the school rules), sent them all off to bed.

Feeling like a sleepwalking zombie, and knowing the Prefects were looking after the First Years, Lily tramped the well-worn path up to the Gryffindor common room. A few people were sitting up, talking and joking, writing letters home or scribbling down homework, chattering and catching up, and sitting by the fire.

Yawning, and wondering whether there would be time to see Professor Slughorn before breakfast tomorrow, Lily, wandered up the staircase to the girls' dormitories.

The other girls hadn't come up to bed yet; the last she saw they had been arguing with McGonagall about Elizabeth's sister Millicent's O.W.L results, received over the holidays-but Lily thought she would keep out of it, as she was Head Girl, after all, and besides, Millicent hadn't done any revision and had set the Great Hall's banners and all the test papers on fire fifteen minutes into the test.

Keeping as close to the metal brazier as possible, Lily undressed and fetched her pyjamas, then tumbled into bed.

She was re-reading _Headship: How to Be a Good Head Without Getting an Oversized One_, when Mary and Jenny walked in, looking tired and thoroughly defeated.

'What did she say?' asked Lily, without looking up.

'Oh, you know McGonagall,' said Jenny, 'she runs a pretty tight ship. I didn't expect to achieve much, but Elly had a pretty determined glint in her eye, so there wasn't much use arguing.'

'She didn't look overly pleased when McGonagall told her there was nothing to be done and that Millicent can re-sit the test with all the fith years,' Mary smirked, pulling on her pyjamas.

'Which, of course, Millie didn't jump at,' said Jenny.

Mary sniggered, 'JUMP being the operative word-she threw a massive tantrum about how unfair everything was and how it would be "social death" to sit a test with the fifth years, and got so worked up that she had poor Benny Feswick dangling by his ankles when he walked past looking for his common-room!'

They both sniggered, and clambered into bed, sighing with comfort and chattering about how wonderful it was that their beds were warmed.

'But who warms them?' asked Mary.

'I don't know,' asked Jenny, 'it can't be any of the male teachers-they're not allowed up here.'

'Well I don't think it's the female teachers either: can you imagine Professor Bulbous, or Professor McGonagall, Professor Spangle or Professor Gaia doing chores?' said Lily, closing her book.

'Who's Professor Gaia?' asked Jenny, confused.

'The Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher,' said Lily, even more confused than Jenny, 'she's been here for quite a while...she took a few classes last year when Professor Diogenes was about to retire...how can you not know her-she's the most fun, excitable and memorable Professor we have!'

'_O-oh_, you mean Jen,' said Jenny, her face relaxing, 'She's so cool.'

'Yeah, d'you remember when she demonstrated the Curse of the Bogies on Jake Benson 'cause he wouldn't stop talking?'

Jenny snorted as Mary took up the rest of the story.

'Oh yeah, I remember...he collapsed in a heap of bogies, coughing and retching and his nose was just run-

ning everywhere, then he began to cough up phle-'

'THANKS, but that's enough information!' cried Lily, covering her ears.

Mary giggled uncontrollably. 'Don't you like the word _phlegm_, Lily? Phlegm! Phlegm! Phlegm! Phlegm! Phlegm! Phlegm! Phlegm!'

Jenny joined in, and soon they were chanting 'Phlegm! Phlegm! Phlegm! Phlegm! Phlegm!' at the top of their voices, and Jessie Nelligen and Bethany Taiple (coming into the dormitory to go to sleep and wondering why it had been turned into a madhouse) had to help Lily attack them with pillows.

Finally, still giggling, Mary swished her hawthorn wand, and the lights extinguished themselves.

There was the rustle of bedsheets and the creaking of springs as the girls got comfortable, then, finally there was silence. Outside the window, the moon rose, casting its silvery light across the floor.

Lily closed her eyes and sighed happily. She was back at Hogwarts, where she belonged.

She was just drifting off to sleep when she heard Mary whisper _'PHLEGM!'_ and the others burst into gales of (extremely loud) laughter.

Lily pulled her pillow over her head and ears and sighed. This was going to be a long night.


	3. Chapter 3: A Time of Changes

**This is only a short chapter-blame homework... review anyone? ****I'll try to update as soon as possible.**

**Thanks to everyone who's following, reviewing and reading! ;) **

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_Chapter Three:_

_A Time for Changes_

Even though the rest of the girls had kept her up half the night with their gossiping and laughing, Lily woke up extremely early, as was her routine, and headed for the Great Hall for breakfast.

The corridors were deathly quiet, and the grey light that filtered through the windows cast an eerie glom over the castle.

Hearing a clattering, and the squeak of chalk on a blackboard, Lily paused, listening. Putting her schoolbag down outside, Lily, quiet as a shadow, slipped into the classroom the noise was coming from.

A piece of chalk was hovering above the board, as it wrote out _'Teachies are for Big Heads' _over and over again.

'Peeves!' cried Lily, exasperated, and the poltergeist materialised with a 'pop', an evil grin plastered on his opaque face. Lily's eyes darted to four cages of parrots sitting on the teacher's desk, ruffling their feathers and preening.

'Ooh, a Big-Head!' cackled Peeves, seeing her _Head Girl _badge, abandoning the chalk and zooming over to Lily, grasping the ornate silver handle of one of the birdcages, its occupants (now squawking loudly and looking distressed) no doubt for the day's Transfiguration class.

'Don't you dare Peeves,' said Lily warningly, whipping out her wand.

'Don't _what_, your Headness?' said Peeves, white hand playing with the birdcage catch.

'Peeves, if you open that cage, I swear you'll wish you'd never been-'

'Open? Ooh, what a good idea!' cackled Peeves, pulling the cage door open. The parrots burst out of their prison in a flurry of green and red feathers, which would, under any other circumstance, have looked quite beautiful, but Lily, engulfed in a cloud of flapping wings and claws as Peeves opened the other cages, did _not _find it so fascinating.

'PEEVES!' she screamed, and she heard the cackling poltergeist shut the door behind him as he floated away, singing 'Birdies fly higgledy piggledy dee, Peevsie caused trouble, yes Peevsie, that's me!'

It took Lily half an hour to round up all the birds and clean up their feathers, and as she left, picking up her bag on the way out, she realized, with a jolt of annoyance, that she could have Summoned the birds, and used a simple Sweeping Spell to clean up the feathers. She really was far too used to living muggle-style with her muggle parents.

This put Lily in a foul mood, and she stormed down to the Great Hall, now full of students eating breakfast.

Huffily, she sat down next to Jenny and Mary, who seemed surprisingly chipper for the amount of sleep they had had. This made Lily even more irritated.

'What happened to you?' asked Jenny, 'you look furious!'

'One word,' said Lily sourly, '_Peeves_.'

'Ah,' said Mary, piling her plate with crumpets and covering them with honey, 'he's ALWAYS up to no good.'

'Who's up to no good? Hope you're not talking about me,' came a voice.

Turning around in her seat, Lily saw the Marauders, lead by Sirius Black, walking up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables towards them.

'_I _was talking about Peeves,' said Mary, 'but sure Black, you're nearly always up to something, so it applies to you too.'

'Quite frankly I'm offended,' said Sirius, plonking himself down next to Mary, 'that you think so little of me that I am only _nearly_ always up to something!'

'You've got parrot feathers in your hair Lily,' said James, gently pulling them out.

'Oh, right...' said Lily, blushing, 'thanks.'

He handed her a small handful of multicoloured feathers, 'Never know when you might need colourful feathers,' he said, 'you could do your hair with them or something.' Lily accepted the small bundle, and gave James a shy smile.

The Marauders sat down and began helping themselves to breakfast.

'So, what are you doing today, sweet Mary Malone?' asked Sirius, flashing his handsomest smile.

'Firstly,' said Mary, sounding far more sensible than about ninety-eight percent of the castle's female population would be with Sirius looking at them like that, 'it's sweet _Molly_ Malone, secondly, I taught you that song LAST year, how did you remember it? You can't even remember the incantation of a simple Cleaning Charm!'

'If it isn't "cockles and mussels" then I guess he won't have any memory of anything,' said Lily.

'Alive, alive oh!' said Sirius heartily.

Mary and Sirius looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

Professor McGonagall was coming up the table, handing out timetables. She stopped in front of Lily, Jenny, Mary and the Marauders, looking rather harassed, 'Oh, well, Potter, good to see you are in control of yourself again.'

'Sounds exciting, bashing up a fifth-year,' said Sirius, 'I should try it some time.'

James shot him a death stare, and then said 'Oh, you know me Professor, completely irresponsible and wild,' he winked at Lily, who suddenly found her marmalade toast extremely interesting.

'Yes, well as Head Boy, Potter, you are expected to set a good example. To...how do I put this plainly...? Be RESPONSIBLE.'

'And how exactly would he do that?' asked Sirius lazily.

'Turning up on time would be a good start,' said McGonagall sternly, handing out their timetables, 'I suggest you check all your class times thoroughly Potter.'

'Well _that's_ not going to happen,' said Sirius casually, when McGonagall had moved on to the next group of people, leaning back and pulling James's timetable away from him, 'bloody hell mate, she wants to take over your life.'

'Take over?' said Remus from beside Sirius, 'being Head Boy is about responsibility, and _listening_ to the teachers! They're allowed to give orders, they studied to be teachers for-'

'Shut up Moony,' said Sirius, 'look, Prongs, just tell them you can't be Head Boy-no one will care. I'm sure Moony'd fill your place, he's goody-goody enough. Just say you can't.'

James looked Lily straight in the eye for a fraction of a second that seemed to last an eternity of glorious days, before he said, 'But I can.'

Sirius scoffed, 'Yeah, and I can sing opera! Just say you don't want to.'

'But I do want to,' said James, 'so I look forward to buying your first opera album.'

And with that, James stood up and walked out of the Great Hall.

Sirius stared after him, gobsmacked, eyebrows raised.

Lily tried to keep the smile from creeping across her face.

'Well that was slightly awkward,' said Jenny.

'Not to mention weird,' said Mary, 'does he normally talk to you like that?'

'No,' said Sirius, standing up to follow James from the Hall, 'and he isn't about to start now.'

**This is only a short chapter-blame homework... review anyone?**

**I'll try to update as soon as possible.**

**Thanks to everyone who's following, reviewing and reading! ;) **


	4. Chapter 4: Changes of An Unlikely Manner

**EDITED AND CHANGED :)**

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Chapter Four

_Changes of An Unlikely Manner_

'What are you doing Prongs? What's the answer now, when you're not showing off for Evans? The REAL answer.'

Lily flinched at the steel in Sirius's voice, then she suddenly froze, frightened of making any sound that might lead to them discovering her.

'I'm not showing off in front of her!' came James's reproachful voice.

'Oh, so you're not still madly in love with her?' asked Sirius snidely.

'I-that's not what I'm saying,' said James.

'Oh, so what are you saying?'

'I'm saying that I can be Head Boy, and I don't need you bossing me around!'

'Oh, so McGonagall wasn't doing that at all?'

'Just stay on topic Padfoot! You may not have noticed, but I've changed-'

'Can't say it's for the better-'

'Just listen, will you? You _know_ my father DIED! And it reminded me that life's short. If you spend it constantly mucking up, then you'll get nowhere. It's got to be like this! I might pretend I'm still the same, by asking why McGonagall sent that badge, but I'm not. I want to be Head Boy, I want to get good grades, and I want to be worthy of my badge. And I don't care if you don't stick by me now that I've abandoned the endeavour to get the 'most detentions in a school year' project, but I've got to do this.'

'James,' came Sirius's voice, clear and calm, 'Firstly, we broke that last year I reckon, so it's not the end of the world. And secondly, how on earth do you expect me not to be friends with you? Just because you've decided to play the good boy to get the good girl-' Lily heard a thump as James punched Sirius. 'Okay, okay, sorry! But I just wanted to say, it's cool. I'll respect your solemn oath of forthwith solemnity and "goodyness" on one condition.'

'Oh, what's that?'

'You've got to invite me to yours and Lily's wedding.'

_THUMP!_

'Hey, stranger things have been known to happen.'

'You be quiet right now Sirius Black or I'll chuck your broomstick at the Whomping Willow,' said James, but Lily could hear the relief and thankfulness in his voice.

She heard their voices getting further away, 'So what will you call your children?'

'_Padfoot!'_

She heard their footsteps fading away, echoing off the stone corridors.

Edging herself out of her hiding spot just enough to look out and peer down the corridor. Seeing it was deserted, she began to inch slowly out of the small crevice, working her hands along the rough stone...her foot was stuck. _Damn it Lily, why did you have to hide in the only tiny, hard-to-get-out-of space in the entire, vast castle?_

'Lily?' came a surprised voice.

Lily gasped, and found herself face-to-face with Remus Lupin.

'What are you doing, hiding in a statue niche?' he asked.

'Um...' said Lily, trying desperately to edge away from the statue of Bethany the Brave, her stony face contorted into a scream of terror. 'Long story... could you get me out? My foot's stuck...'

Extending a hand, Remus helped her out of the small space, as she pulled her foot from the tangle of Bethany's intricately creased stone robes.

'You alright?'

'Yeah...yeah, I'm fine...Sorry, I was looking for my bag…I left it in a niche around here somewhere...'

'Oh…okay…am I allowed to ask why?'

'Not really. It's a long-it just-I don't like carrying it around everywhere. Where are you headed?'

'Uh…I'd rather not…um, to post a letter to my…grandmother, she's ill.'

'Oh-I hope she gets better soon Remus-shoot! I've gotta go to History of Magic-my god I'll be late!' she cried, sprinting away down the corridor, making sure Remus couldn't see her before pulling her bag from behind the tapestry where she'd left it while tailing James and Sirius.

Biting her lip, Lily kept on running...she hope Remus would accept her excuse…her mind was still spinning with _'James's father DIED!'_

Panting, Lily pulled up outside the History of Magic classroom, straightened her clothes and hair and walked in.

'...which, when the next Meeting occurred, turned out to be a bad decision owing to the nature of said 'beasts', which caused upheaval at the Ministry,' came Professor Binns's droning voice as Lily wrenched open the door and dashed in.

'Sorry I'm-late,' she gasped, clutching a stitch in her side.

'Wow, this is a reversal of roles isn't it?' said James, grinning.

Professor Binns, who hadn't noticed the disturbance, continued drearily, even though the entire class was now watching Lily take her things and sit down next Mary, Jenny and Ellie.

'Where were you, Evans, that made you LATE to class?' said Sirius teasingly.

Lily turned around, in the middle of pulling out her quill and parchment for taking notes, to face Sirius, James and Peter, in the row behind her.

'I-spilt some jam on my robes and had to clean it off,' she lied easily, keeping a calm expression and hoping they wouldn't hear the loud hammering of her heart.

'But I thought you said you were-' began Mary, confused.

'-only going to be a minute!' said Ellie smoothly, kicking Mary under the desk.

'Yeah well,' said Lily, turning back around, and flashing Ellie a grateful smile, 'it was a hard stain to clean.'

'Hey I wonder where Moony got to?' Lily heard James ask, just as she began to scribble down the date of the Official Classification of 'beasts' and 'Intelligent beings'.

'I'm sure he'll turn up,' Lily said, more to herself, as she wiped a stray drop of ink off her page.

'What was that?' asked James.

'Er-nothing,' said Lily quickly, re-dipping her quill.

'...it was decided that trolls were to be classified as beasts, and this lead to a trolls' own meeting which did not achieve the desired result...'

Remus turned up fifteen minutes before the end of the lesson, looking as tired and dishevelled as ever. He quietly took his seat, and then flinched when Professor Binns' glum, plodding voice declared, '...therefore owing to considerable discussion, we can conclude that werewolves are classified as intelligent beasts...'

Lily, who had figured out last year that Remus was a werewolf, tried to keep her face impassive, knowing it would spread around the school like wildfire if Remus's condition got out. As they left the classroom, Lily heard Sirius quizzing Remus on where he had been.

'I-um...I went to the library,' said Remus in a small voice, sounding worried.

'Come on, you don't need to do THAT much revision!' said James, 'you already know the date of every Goblin's Sock-Knitting Committee meeting ever held!'

'Goblin REBELLION, you mean?' corrected Remus, 'it was originally started by a goblin called-'

'O-kay that's enough meaningless fact for one day,' said Sirius quickly, 'I, however, am going to Care of Magical Creatures before lunch...pity it's with the Slytherins, I would've loved to have girl to talk to...'

'There ARE girls in Slytherin,' said Mary, speeding up to walk next to Sirius.

'Yeah, but all of them are fluent in troll and not English, and they are generally seven foot tall and too busy talking about how to disembowel a salamander than to listen to my extremely witty jokes!'

'Oh how sad,' snorted Mary, 'the world is falling about our ears with He Who Must Not Be Named taking over, and a Slytherin girl won't laugh at Sirius's _jokes_.'

'Hey Mary, you don't speak troll do you?'

'Um, no? Weird question...'

Sirius looked her up and down and stood on the balls of his feet, 'Nope, you're not any taller than me.'

'Sorry, what?'

'Okay, final test-what's the difference between Professor Binns and a motorbike engine?'

'I'm surprised you even know what a motorbike engine is,' said Jenny, 'they're a muggle invention.'

'I love motorbikes,' said Sirius, 'but Mary, what's the difference?'

'I have absolutely no idea, you tell me.'

'One's a droning thing that's impossible to learn information from, and sputters when you thump it, and the other's a motorbike engine!'

Everyone began laughing, and Remus said suddenly, 'I've-left my quill behind. I'll meet you down there!'

Lily, turning to follow him, heard Sirius say, 'She'll do nicely!' and saw him link arms and pretend to frog-march Mary down to Care of Magical Creatures, Mary waving like royalty and Sirius grinning like a madman, both being showered with gales of laughter from the others.

'Hey, Remus!' called Lily, catching up to him as he headed for Professor Binns's classroom.

'Where were you?' she asked when she was walking beside him.

'Like I said, I was in the library!'

'Oh, so where are you going now?'

'_Like I said_, I'm going to get my quill!'

'Remus,' said Lily, 'are you alright? I'm worried about you! Are you sure you're okay? Sorry if I stressed you out this morning on your way to wherever it is you were going-'

'The library, I keep telling you!'

'Lily I know you're not telling me the whole story.' His face was set, his dark eyes deadly serious.

'Well, anyway,' said Lily, trying desperately to change the subject, 'I'm sorry to have worried you before...'

'What makes you think I was worried?' said Remus, stopping just outside the History of Magic classroom.

'Well, the fact that you said you went to the library, which is the most obvious excuse in the world-'

'I am not lying!' he said hotly, his face flushed with anger, 'You can call me a liar if you want, but I'm not! You're not telling me the whole truth about something! And if it's important I'd like to know.'

'It's nothing Remus-I told you, I lost my bag.'

'And to me it sounds like you aren't telling the whole truth.'

'And I don't think you really went to the library!'

'I keep telling you-I WENT TO THE LIBRARY, AND NOW I'M GETTING MY QUILL, OKAY?' and with that, Remus stormed into the classroom, face like a thundercloud.

As Lily hurried down to Care of Magical Creatures, she began to wonder if she wasn't the only one who wasn't telling the whole truth.


	5. Chapter 5: A Fear of Loneliness

**Hi Everyone, thank you for reading! This chapter's taken a while to write-all sorts of problems such as computers crashing, homework, not enough time and being too tired (a bit of a theme in this chapter) are all to blame. So thanks again, and enjoy! :)**

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Chapter Five

_A Fear of Loneliness_

The rest of the day ticked on. Exhausted from the day's antics as well as the late night, Lily hardly noticed what was going on in Care of Magical Creatures until Professor Dulse called to her to pay more attention to the Crup she was supposed to be looking after, as it was trying to eat Jenny's, that had been affectionately named Scruff-as it looked like Jenny's Jack Russel Terrier from home, except with a forked tail.

Lunch passed in a blur, and before she knew it, Lily was sitting in Potions, the last lesson of the day, unable to stop herself yawning.

'-if brewed correctly, The Draught of Peace should have a calming, relaxing effect,' said Professor Slughorn, and Lily forced herself to sit up straighter as he looked her way. She was a model pupil, and Potions was, after all, her favourite subject. Her reputation and grades could not be compromised for a night of next to no sleep, the troubling subject of Remus Lupin, and the antics with Peeves.

'If brewed incorrectly, however,' continued Professor Slughorn, 'it tends to have a rather _too_ relaxing effect…can anybody tell me…? Ah, Miss Evans?'

'Well, if the Draught of Peace is brewed wrong, it tends to put the drinker into a deep almost coma-like sleep…' Lily forced her eyelids not to close at the mention of sleep…lovely sleep…just five minutes-_no. Must answer the question!_ Lily supressed a tired yawn '…and if you've brewed it incorrectly, the potion tends to be…uh, explosive?'

Professor Slughorn chuckled, 'An imaginative and factual answer, as always, Miss Evans. Five points for Gryffindor!' Lily felt a great sense of pride swelling up inside her. 'Now, you will find the instructions for The Draught of Peace on page two hundred and twenty two of your books. You have two hours, and we shall be testing the potions at the end of the lesson. Good luck to you all!'

Eyes feeling heavy and dry, Lily flipped open her copy of _The Potion-Maker's Almanac_, and began to turn the pages slowly, eyelids fluttering slowly closed_…_

'Lily my dear girl!' came Slughorn's voice as if from down a long tunnel, 'whatever's the matter?'

'Huh…' mumbled Lily, her head jerking up quickly from her textbook, 'I-um, sorry Professor…' she glanced across at Jenny, peering concernedly at her from behind her cauldron, fizzling and spitting out green sparks, 'late night.'

'Well, well, we couldn't expect all the pupils not to be overexcited on their first day back and stay up talking all night. Here, drink this,' Slughorn pulled a little bottle from his pocket. Inside was a translucent turquoise-blue coloured liquid, shimmering slightly, and there was an eye drawn on the label, which read _Wide-Eye Awakening Potion (consume two drops)_.

Lily carefully measured two drops into the lid of the bottle and tipped it into her mouth, the rescrewed the cap and handed the bottle back to Slughorn.

Immediately, she felt her eyes regain their moisture and functionality, and felt a readiness spreading from the tips of her fingers.

Lily gave a little shiver at the odd sensation.

'Funny little brew, isn't it?' said Slughorn jovially, 'it will wear off in about three hours' time.'

'That will give me about enough time to do all my homework…thank you Professor,' said Lily, smiling, opening her textbook to the right page and began to crush two grams of moonstone into a fine powder.

'Anything for my favourite pupil,' said Professor Slughorn with a wink, then quickly dashing over to where Sirius's potion was hissing and emitting dark grey smoke, having turned a foul concrete-like consistency.

Tipping her mortar and pestle, now full of shimmering silver dust, into the cauldron, Lily glanced back at her book.

_Next, add two powdered porcupine quills, and gently mix._

Following the instructions carefully, Lily crushed up the porcupine quills, then set the Valerian root chopping itself, while she measured the right amount of porcupine quills.

Lily tipped five grams of Valerian root into the mix, and began decanting the Yarnwood juice, so as to separate the lumps often found at the bottom of the bottle.

Using her wand to stir the potion, twice clockwise, thrice anticlockwise, then twice clockwise again, Lily re-read the instructions to double-check all her measurements.

Before Lily knew it, Slughorn was calling, 'You have five minutes remaining! Now is an excellent time to be adding the Syrup of Hellebore to your mixture, which should turn the potion a lilac colour if all the ingredients have been correctly measured and added.

_Finally, _read Lily, _add two teaspoons of Syrup of Hellebore to the powdered unicorn horn (separate from the rest of the potion), and wait until the unicorn horn is completely dissolved_, _and mixture turns green._

Picking up the red bottle labelled 'Syrup of Hellebore' Lily carefully measured out the right amount, and then waited while the syrup began to eat through the fine, sparkling powder. While she waited, she looked around at everybody else. Jenny's robes had caught on fire from the green sparks, and she was beating the flames out with her textbook; over in the corner, Sirius had had to start again because his concrete-like mix had turned rock hard; James's was resolutely refusing to turn orange, the colour required before turquoise could be achieved (and Lily strongly suspected that he had not measured out enough Valerian root); Mary's was stirring her potion the wrong way; and, coming from the Slytherin side of the room was a strong smell of sulphur.

Glancing back at her potion, Lily saw it had turned a dark green. Careful not to spill a drop of the separate unicorn horn-Hellebore mixture in a small metal bowl, now a paste-like consistency, she tipped it into her cauldron, which held a bright blue coloured liquid. Lily quickly turned the heat of her flame down.

With a satisfying fizzing, crackling sound, her potion began to bubble and fizz, sending curling tendrils of translucent, pale pink steam from the now perfectly lilac potion.

Lily could smell lavender, sandalwood and incense, which was, according to their textbook, was _the smell of success…or of a well-made Draught of Peace_.

Turning her flame off, and closing the lid to let the potion simmer in the heat it had already obtained, Lily wandered around the room. Most of the potions she saw were beyond help: Jenny's had gone a funny black colour and was still feebly emitting small, fizzing sparks. Mary's had evaporated completely; Peter Pettigrew's was a nasty grey colour and smelled of rotten eggs. Remus's potion was turquoise, but just a shade lighter than hers, which Lily suspected came from about a pinch too much moonstone (though it was now too late to undo that). Sirius's second potion was no better than his disastrous first attempt-it had thickened and become a fluorescent yellow gloop; and James's was still persistently orange.

'Try adding half a gram more Valerian root,' Lily told him, then moved on to look around at the next cauldrons. Hearing a fizz similar to the one her potion had made, Lily saw pinkish steam being emitted from James's cauldron, and she smiled to herself: another potion that she had helped to perfect.

Lily went to check Mirabelle's potion, and found it was a shade of dark purple rather than lilac, but it was better than some of the others she'd seen.

'Alright everyone, stand by your cauldrons,' called Professor Slughorn, 'I'm coming around to check them now…'

Lily stood proudly by her cauldron as Professor Slughorn inspected it.

'A perfect shade of turquoise…slight bubbling…you even managed to get the exact shade of pink steam as well,' he complimented, 'and is that…sandalwood, jasmine and incense? Well, my dear, you've outdone yourself again!'

Lily smiled as Slughorn moved on to the next table.

It seemed that the only person who could best Lily's potion was Severus, which irritated her for some reason, who had somehow managed to get the steam of his potion to be a bright red colour, which Slughorn described as the 'advanced level' shade. _How had he known to do that?_ Lily found herself wondering jealously, _did he really have time to do extra potions study in between following his Death Eater friends around like a kite over which they had complete control?_

After all the potions had been Vanished (Lily had kept a small phial of hers, just in case), the equipment washed and everything packed away, Lily hung back, fiddling with the catch on her potion bag, as the other students filed past her.

'Ah, Lily my dear, what can I do to help you?' asked Slughorn, seeing her.

'Oh, I was just wondering Professor...how did Severus know about the red steam-surely his friends don't give him enough time to revise _anything_?'

'Ah, I might have guessed you wouldn't have liked to be out-brewed…you see, Mr Snape came to me and expressed his interest in Potions, so I lent him some of my old Potion notes, for some extra research.'

'Might I borrow them as well Professor? When he gives them back, of course,' said Lily, determined not to be out-done by Severus _Snape_.

'But of course!' said Slughorn, 'but of course…the only problem m'dear is that Mr Snape has asked permission to borrow them until well into next term, and I do not think he would be eager to hand them in early…'

'Oh really? Well, we'll see about THAT,' said Lily.

'Oh I'm sure you will see about that,' said Slughorn, chuckling, 'I'm _sure_ you will, but whether poor Mr Snape can cope with your idea of "seeing" is an entirely different matter!'

Lily grinned, as she remembered Slughorn walking in on her hexing Sirius Black in their second-year for teasing Severus and calling her 'Lily dearest'. That had been the incident that (apart from sending Sirius to the hospital wing with rather too many arms), had granted her a place in the Slug Club.

'The Slug Club shall have another meeting soon,' said Professor Slughorn, as if he was reading her mind, 'look for my invitation. But for now, please excuse me m'dear: there is a rather delicious pie up at dinner that urgently needs my attention…'

Smiling, Lily gathered her things and walked out of the dungeons, taking the stairs two at a time and proceeding to the Great Hall where everybody was taking their seats.

'Hey Lily!' called Mirabelle, leaping up from the Slytherin table, and walking over to Lily.

'Hi Mirabelle, what's the matter?'

'Oh no nothing, it's just…' she beckoned for Lily to lean closer, 'Adam Gerdal from Hufflepuff asked me to go to the Hogsmeade weekend, in a few weeks, when we were coming up from Potions!'

'Oh,' said Lily, surprised, 'I thought you were going to say something really serious, like someone else had been attacked by You-Know-Who.'

'No-but what do you think? Should I say yes?'

'Which one's Adam Gerdal?' asked Lily.

'There, at the Hufflepuff table…next to that girl with the weird hair-ribbon things…'

'Where?'

'Along a bit from where you're looking-see, where I'm pointing...'

'The boy with the curly brown hair?'

'Yep!'

'You don't mean _Adam_...the one who we used to fight with because he had a crush on Jenny?'

'Yeah, that's him.'

'I...um, Mirabelle I'm not sure if he's exactly the most sensible of guys...'

'Oh?' said Mirabelle, gazing dreamily at the back of Adam's head.

'Er, yeah, do you remember how he used to follow Jenny around like a second shadow? He wouldn't leave her alone!'

'Yeah, so?'

'He's a bit obsessive Mirabelle...seriously I'd say DON'T go out with him.'

'Thanks Lily!' said Mirabelle cheerily, 'I'll tell him tomorrow.'

'You're welcome. Just break it to him kindly.'

'What?' said Mirabelle, distractedly, 'Anyway, so where do you think we should go first when we go to Hogsmeade-ooh, I heard a new teashop called Madam Puddifoot's...bother, it opens at the end of this year…'

'Mirabelle, have you been listening to a single word I've been saying?'

Mirabelle, gazing over at Adam said 'hmm?' vaguely, and Lily knew she was a lost cause.

'See you tomorrow Mirabelle,' she said resignedly, and went to join Mary and Jenny, both of whom were deep in conversation.

Mary, Lily saw as she sat down at the Gryffindor House table, was ignoring the food piled before her and chatting animatedly to Sirius, who was watching her like a hungry wolf. _Typical Black_, thought Lily sourly, turning to ask Jenny about Adam Gerdal, only to find her deep in conversation with Danny Crew, her boyfriend from Ravenclaw, who she'd been going out with since fifth year.

Grumpily, with two friends either side of her locked up in different worlds, Lily began to help herself to shepherd's pie, when Remus appeared behind her, 'Hey Lily?'

Lily gasped, and spilled the shepherd's pie all down her front. Swearing spectacularly, Lily wished she hadn't used a stain on her robes as the excuse for her absence this morning-the things that she lied about had an annoying tendency of actually happening.

'Oh, sorry,' said Remus, 'here,' he pulled out his wand, '_Scourgify!'_

The front of Lily's robes began to pour out white soap bubbles, which disappeared as soon as they had appeared, leaving the robes clean and dry.

'Thanks Remus,' said Lily gratefully.

'Could I sit down?' he asked politely.

'Yes of course,' said Lily, 'budge up Mary!' she added, and Remus slipped in between Mary and Lily, 'those two are busy talking to their boyfriends, so any distraction's welcome...I was getting quite bored really.'

'Well, I...' Remus gathered his thoughts, 'Are you going to tell me what was going on this morning? You were suspiciously near…well I could've sworn I heard James and Sirius…'

'Oh. Look Remus, it doesn't matter- I was just wondering why James was acting so civil lately…and I accidentally lost my bag when I tried to tail them…I didn't hear anything though,' she said, feeling better to tell, well, _most of_ the truth, but determined not to tell Remus about James's father. If James hadn't told him, he probably didn't want Remus to know, and she shouldn't know the secret at all, let alone tell other people.

'Oh.' said Remus. 'Right. That's definitely all?' Lily nodded, 'Oh, I'm sorry I overreacted Lily...I'm very tired at the moment.'

'Did the full moon wear you out last week?' she asked sympathetically.

'I-what-you-full moon, what does that have to do with m-?'

'Remus,' said Lily, quietly, 'I know you're a werewolf.'

'Bu-I-I didn't-I never told...how do you-?'

'Come on, I'm not _stupid_! I figured it out last year. That's what comes of doing extra Astronomy and Defence Against the Dark Arts research.'

'Oh.' His face was concerned, 'but you haven't-?'

'I haven't and _won't_ tell a soul Remus, not even Jenny or Mary: you're my friend, I'm not going to betray you.'

He let out a deep sigh of relief. 'Phew...that's a relief. Well, thank you Lily. You don't know how much that means to me. I'll just say I said something rude to you when they ask why we're not speaking anymore-'

'_What?_'

'Well I-I'm a dangerous monster. You don't want a friend like that, nobody should have to be...my friends are the exception, you don't have to keep my secret AND be my friend-'

'Don't you even think about it Remus Lupin,' said Lily fiercely, 'I'd still be your friend even if the whole school knew! You're a great person Remus. Don't you ever let anyone, especially yourself, tell you otherwise.'

'But I'm-'

'And if they _do_, you can refer them straight to me.'

Remus looked at her, and she saw the gratitude in his eyes, 'Thank you Lily. Thank you for everything.'

She gave him a quick hug, 'And don't worry about James anymore, alright?'

'Who's talking about me?' came a voice, 'Oi, budge over,' James added to Jenny, and slid in between her and Lily. 'What were you saying about me?'

'Other than that you are completely annoying and it's freakishly weird how you manage to pop up out of nowhere and listen in on peoples' conversations, we weren't talking about you,' said Lily calmly, continuing to serve herself shepherd pie.

'Oh good,' said James sourly, 'at least it wasn't anything kind.'

Remus snorted, 'It never is.'

'Zip it Moony,' said James almost cheerily, helping himself to roast potatoes.

'_OH_, so that's why you're called Moon-' began Lily loudly.

'ANYWAY, what do you think we'll be learning in Defence Against the Dark Arts tomorrow?' said Remus loudly and forcefully.

'I-what did you mean by that Evans?' asked James.

'Sssh!' said Remus anxiously, glancing around at the people beside them.

Lily closer to James to say quietly, 'I've known Remus is a werewolf since Sixth Year-he's just found out I know, so he's a bit jumpy.'

James gaped. 'But-I didn't-we never told-'

'What is with you boys, honestly?' said Lily, 'd'you think I walk around with my eyes closed? And no before you ask, I haven't told anyone. Look, just take Moony up to bed with a sandwich or something, he looks like he's hyperventilating.'

'But how did you figure it-?'

'I've already told Remus,' she said shortly, pushing James up, 'just quiz _him_ about it when you're up in the dormitory, okay, and leave me here to eat while my friends flirt with their boyfriends.'

Taken aback by her obvious authority, James grabbed a plate of food and called 'Oi, Wormtail, Padfoot, I need you guys _now_.'

'Bit busy right now,' said Sirius, continuing his conversation with Mary.

'Aaargh, fine then you two stay here,' said James, '_Wingardium Leviosa!_' The plate of food began to Levitate above them. 'C'mon Moony,' James said, and, directing the floating plate to follow them, they left the Great Hall.

Lily finished her pie in silence, hearing only snippets of the conversations around her.

'-Sure we can go to Hogsmeade...the Three Broomsticks in two weekends?'

'-Nah, my family are all pure-blood weirdos. They freaked when they heard I was in Gryffindor: satisfying really-'

'-But are you sure you'll have enough time? Apparently McGonagall really piles the homework on Ravenclaws-'

'...so if you happened to fancy a Gryffindor half-blood they'd die of shock?'

'-It'll be fine. I'll work through the nights if I have to, if it means I get to see you-'

'-to be honest I wish they would, so it would be a good thing if I fancied a certain Gryffindor half-blood and accompanied her to Hogsmeade in a few weekends...then somehow my family receive a letter about it-and what could they do to me? I'm staying with James's parents!'

Sick of listening, Lily quietly slipped away from the table and into the beckoning shadows of the long stone corridors. So, everybody except her was now going to Hogsmeade in two weeks time with somebody were they? Perhaps she just wouldn't go: there wasn't anyone she could possibly think of that could go with her-

There was a loud _smack!_ as Lily collided with somebody head-on.

'Ow...' rubbing her forehead, Lily groaned, and looked up, as the person she'd collided with swam into view.

'James?' she said.

'Ouch,' he said, trying to adjust his shattered glasses, 'you and I really aren't having much luck in the way of running into each other, are we?'

'Obviously not,' said Lily, massaging her head, and gently taking his glasses from him, 'here, _Occulus Repairo._' She tapped the glasses, and they reassembled themselves.

'Thanks,' mumbled James, putting them back on, '_Occulus _Repairo? That's a bit fancy isn't it? Doesn't Repairo work for glasses?

'Well Occulus Repairo is the more specific spell just for glasses-because the glass lenses on glasses are different to ordinary window glass, they need to be repaired specially or they don't magnify stuff properly. It's the same with muggles-they have window repairers and glasses repairers.'

'Oh,' said James.

'So, uh, how's Remus?'

'What-? Oh, him. Yeah, he's okay. I put him to bed with _Advanced Magical Theory_ to keep him calm...I'll go and check on him later-you know: it's a big thing for him. He's worried you'll tell someone, and then he might be kicked out of Hogwarts-'

'I would never betray Remus! He should know that by now!'

James's mouth twisted into a frown, and there was an intense expression of jealousy on his face, 'Why?'

'Well-I-' Lily blushed. Remus was her friend. She loved him like a brother almost-they would often do their homework together, and patrol the corridors as Prefects...how could James even _think _for a second that...? Why did he care anyway? 'I-he's my friend,' she said hurriedly.

There was an extremely awkward pause, which seemed to last for eternity, and Lily could feel herself squirming.

James finally broke the silence by saying, 'Oh well, I probably should-'

'Oh, yeah, me too-'

'So I'll just-uh, sorry about running into you...'

'That's okay, I'm sorry too: just um, yeah, be wary they're...not very sociable at the Gryffindor table. Our friends, I mean.'

'Oh really, why not?'

'Oh um, they're all planning to accompany each other to Hogsmeade...'

'Ah,' said James, 'I remember Padfoot saying something about hoping to ask Mary sometime this year...obviously he's not very patient.'

'No I guess not.'

There was another silence and Lily turned to go, and then James suddenly called, 'Who are you going with Lily?'

Flustered and surprised, mainly because he usually called her Evans, Lily turned around. 'Sorry?'

'To-to Hogsmeade, who are you going with?'

'Oh-don't be daft! Why would I be going with- I'm not going with anyone!'

'Oh,' said James. 'Pity.'

'Yeah, well, goodnight.'

''Night.'

As she dashed up to the Gryffindor Common-room, Lily, for the first time ever, found herself wondering about what might have happened if James had asked her to the Hogsmead weekend and she had said yes.

Worried by her own thoughts, and beginning to feel the _Wide-Eye Awakening Potion_ wearing off, Lily found her way up to the portrait of the Fat Lady, dressed in a pink silk dress, pearls around her throat, straightening her curls around her head.

'Password?'

'Uh, Dirigible Plums,' said Lily, remembering the password from the Prefects' meeting.

'Correct,' said the Fat Lady, and swung forward.

Setting up, and stifling a yawn, Lily wrote out her History of Magic notes in full, and finished the essay on feeling-inducing brews for Professor Slughorn, then packed up her things and headed to bed, feeling twice as tired as before the _Wide-Eye Awakening Potion_.

Her head began spinning as she tumbled into bed, determined to fall asleep before the noisy girls came up, no doubt talking of nothing but their dates in Hogsmeade...Would Remus be alright? He had looked so worried and pale...What would she do when they were all in Hogsmead with their boyfriends? Perhaps she could hang out with Jeannie-no, SHE would probably go with Sean O'Connor, the boy she had been seeing last year...so Lily would be by herself, the loner...maybe she should find another friend, or tag along with one of the couples...?

No, she thought, rolling over and closing her eyes, I'll face that when it comes.


	6. Chapter 6: The Secrets of Severus Snape

Books » Harry Potter » **All's Well That Ends Well**

Author: Rainbowserpent

1. Chapter 1:The Insanity of A Dumbledore2. Chapter 2: A SEVERE Excess of Phlegm3. Chapter 3: A Time of Changes4. Chapter 4: Changes of An Unlikely Manner5. Chapter 5: A Fear of Loneliness6. Chapter 6: The Secrets of Severus Snape7. Chapter 7: A Window Into A New World8. Chapter 8: Sweet Mary Malone9. Chapter 9: Friend or Foe?10. Chapter 10: Sniffles and Snuffles11. Chapter 11: A Massive Mistake?12. Chapter 12: Pottermonia13. Chapter 13: Trouble in Paradise14. Chapter 14: Inevitably15. Chapter 15:House-Elves and Sherbet Lemon16. Chapter 16: Never Eat Wet Toast Syndrome17. Chapter 17: Dinner by Candlelight18. Chapter 18: The Disappearing Act19. Chapter 19: Fear20. Chapter 20: Love Undone21. Dear Readers (A Notice)

Rated: T - English - Humor/Romance - Reviews: 78 - Published: 08-18-12 - Updated: 02-04-13

id:8441304

**Hello everyone, I may not be able to update for a while...I'll try of course, but you know what it's like: HOMEWORK HOMEWORK HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT-aaaaaaaaaahhhhh! I'm looking for inspiration for new stories (most probably Harry Potter, but whatever), so if you have any ideas, just for characters to be used, character pairing, plot, idea, joke or punchline that'd look cool included in a story please Private Message me-if I use it, I'll of course disclaim that bit to you! :) Thanks guys**

* * *

Chapter 6

_The Secret of Severus Snape_

The weather had turned foul by Wednesday, and Care of Magical Creatures had to be held in one of the dungeons. When the class filed in, it was like stepping into another world-the dungeon had been transformed into a small clearing, complete with blue sky, grass, moss-covered boulders, shrubs, several trees and a small, burbling brook.

Professor Dulse was extremely distracted, as she was furious that Dumbledore had not allowed her to bring the unicorns, which she had prepared specially, into the castle, and kept muttering about 'complete ignorance' and how he had 'no right'-the creatures were apparently 'extremely unlikely to spear a student through, what's he thinking of? And as if it would go on rampage…gallivanting about-? "Unlikely yet still dangerous, and to disrupt the students' classes would be ill advised"!…oh, such rubbish…'

Instead, they had to revert to either telling the difference between Knarls and hedgehogs, or the intensive care of Flobberworms.

As neither were really suitable Seventh Year level creatures, Professor Dulse (though still extremely miffed by the whole experience) lay out several rows of hedgehogs and Knarls with a table laden with several different food groups to identify the creatures with, and several trestle tables with tubs of Flobberworms.

'Now, I'll split you into two groups, and we'll rotate halfway through…' said Professor Dulse, sounding terse.

'This is so boring,' she heard Sirius say, accidentally shrivelling several Flobberworms as he prodded them with his wand (which seemed to be setting them alight), 'Oh, whoops,' he added, seeing the effect he was having on the small slimy worms, and throwing the shrivelled ones into the small brook, 'They're almost as slimy as _Snivellus_. Honestly, I mean, why couldn't these things just have become extinct along with dinosaurs?'

'They're not that bad,' said Remus reasonably. Lily looked up from her Flobberworms. He seemed to have recovered after the shock, and seemed to be regaining some colour to his unnaturally white face. He looked up, and Lily saw the circles under his eyes. _Poor Remus_, she thought,and gave him a warm smile, which he returned. He was such a nice boy: it must be extremely hard for him when he changed at full moon-to become a savage beast with no recollection of itself, just a lust for blood...it was so unlike Remus. Lily felt shivers down her spine.

As always, Sirius was talking away, completely unaware of anyone else, 'I mean, who wants to shove lettuce down the slimy buggers' throats anyway?'

Fifteen minutes into the lesson, Lily began to see his point. The Flobberworms had no necks, so when you poked the sliced greens into their mouths, your fingers would become coated in a sticky translucent slime that resided in their stomachs and helped them to digest their food.

'Ew,' she muttered, as the thick mucus-y stuff refused to be removed from under her fingernails, despite the various Scouring Charms she attempted.

When the groups swapped, it took Lily about twenty seconds to find a bowl of milk and place it before her two creatures, which both looked extraordinarily like hedgehogs, except that the one on the right proved itself to be a Knarl. While the others stood in a docile manner, making Lily unsure of which was the Knarl, this particular 'hedgehog' suddenly removed all doubt by zapping forwards to the milk, eying it, then going beserk, as it saw the milk as an attempt to poison it.

Lily watched her classmates with great disdain-had they _seriously_ forgotten everything from their books? Wendy Soap and Harriet Harvey-Smythe, were trying to tempt the Knarl out with a thick slab of raw meant; Sirius and James were having no luck whatsoever with their Knarl, even though Remus had told them to use milk ('Thanks, I _knew_ that,' Lily had heard James say, 'I actually read the textbook this year, hard as you may find that to believe.'); Remus and Peter Pettigrew had two Knarls running hysterically around, eyes bulging and spines quivering, and Lily had a sudden suspicion that James and Sirius's Knarl and Remus and Peter's hedgehog had swapped places; Mary was too busy looking over at Sirius to think about the hungry and now slightly aggressive Knarl chewing through her new shoes; Barney Fisher was practicing their Transfiguration homework on Switching Spells on the animals; and poor Jeremy Briddington was trying to coax his creatures from the depths of a nearby blackberry bush.

By the end of the lesson, they were all bruised, slimy, beaten and heading up to Defence Against the Dark Arts with a distinctly irritated air. Jeremy Briddington was covered head to toe in scratches, and was sent to the Hospital Wing to get several thorns removed.

All in all, the class had a slightly resigned and gloomy feel as they collapsed into their seats in Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Ravenclaws, and waited Professor Gaia to appear.

When their teacher finally turned up, robes dishevelled, with ash all through her brown hair, the class had resorted to bewitching paper aeroplanes and notes around.

'Sorry I'm late everyone, if you could just get out your stuff…' Professor Gaia took several gasps of air, 'I had to run up…Professor Dulse "accidentally" set the dungeons on fire…that's what happens when you confine a Care of Magical Creatures teacher to a classroom.' The class laughed, and James muttered, 'Looked in the mood when we left, didn't she?'

'So-o-o-o…um, okay,' Professor Gaia picked up her schedule and flipped through, 'ah yes. Okay then everyone, this is our first formal lesson together. I taught a few lessons last year when Professor Diogenes was retiring, so some of you might know me-show of hands who was in those lessons last year?' She counted them, 'One, two, three, four, five…wow, ten? Eleven, twelve… Quite a few then; but for those who don't know me, hi, I'm _Professor Gaia_, but you can just call me Jen, it's easier that way. Um, alright, let's see-rumour has it you covered advanced Defensive Spells last year, so to recap everything and see if it's all _leaked _out your ears over the holidays, we're going to have a little test.'

There was a collective groan from the class, and Lily felt a small pocket of doubt slip down into her stomach, weighing her down. She hadn't done any revision for an on-the-spot test!

'It's nothing to worry about,' she heard Professor Gaia say, but all Lily could think of was the last random test they had had, where she had found all the answers slipping from her mind.

Quickly, she began rifling through _Unveiling Dark Magic: HOW TO DISECT AND PROTECT AGAINST OFFENSIVE SPELLS by Ethal Dynamick_, and had just got to _Chapter Seven: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Protective Charms, _when she heard Professor Gaia call, 'Books away everyone, don't want you cheating.'

With an air of resigned gloom, Lily shut her textbook and lay it on the ground with her bag, like everyone else was doing.

'You may turn over your test papers,' said Professor Gaia, waving her wand so that four pages of test paper appeared on each person's desk, face down, 'and begin…' they all waited in complete silence, hanging on her every word. Each second passed like water dripping from a leaf. _Drip_, one, _drip_, two, _drip_, three_, drip_, four, _drip, _five, _drip_, six, _drip, _seven…

'NOW!'

Slightly abashed at the 'start-of-the-race' style of beginning a test, Lily flipped over her test, scribbled her name down and began to ponder the first few questions.

_Which Offensive Spells cannot be conquered by ordinary Defensive Spells (eg Protego, Shield Charm)?_

_What, in your opinion, would be the most fail-safe spell to eliminate (please note: Unforgivable Curses do not count) your opponent?_

_How many CERTAIN Defensive Spells are there?_

_How many UNCERTAIN Defensive Spells are there, and why are they classified as UNCERTAIN?_

_What, according to Wizarding Law, is the point at which one may legally perform Offensive Spells on another person?_

_What, according to Ethal Dynamick, is the point at which one should be able to legally perform Offensive Spells on another person?_

Lily felt herself switching off as she read through the rest; the questions seemed to slip through her brain like water through a sieve.

Picking up her quill, she re-dipped it and held it poised over the page. _Which Offensive Spells cannot be conquered by ordinary Defensive Spells? _How was she supposed to know? Lily felt a slight panic gripping at her insides, like a cat clawing at the back door to be let outside. _Oh no,_ she added to herself, _this afternoon is potions_. She could just see Severus now, in Charms, probably reading through Profesor Slughorn's notes, planning the praise he would get from the Potion master, Slughorn himself, who wrote those Potions notes, and who was kind enough to lend them to _Snivellus Snape_!

_If Snape's Potion is better than mine I swear I'll_…Lily began thinking angrily, but right at that moment, Professor Gaia walked past, and Lily was brought back to the task at hand.

Defence Against the Dark Arts Test. Right. A splotch of ink had fallen onto her page as her quill had quivered, stationary above the page. Lily quickly blotted it out with a tissue from her bag, and her eyes slid back to the questions.

_Offensive Spells that couldn't be overcome by common Defensive Spells…?_ Well, the Unforgivable Curses seemed a good place to start, Lily thought, scribbling the three spells down…and the hexes that were classified as 'DANGEROUS'…but she couldn't remember them all…

Lily worked through each question, delving deeper into her memory of all last years' lessons, when they had done practical work, and the messy board-work Professor Diogenes had so wonkily drawn up, with three extremely slanting columns: 'CERTAIN', 'NEUTRAL', and 'UNCERTAIN' spells… she remembered the time Professor Diogenes had got them to practice the _Toenail Hex _with the third-years…THAT had been memorable…

Lily felt quite pleased with herself, as she walked down to Potions. Though, admittedly, she had been quite stumped by the last question: _'Finally, what are the advantages of __**non-verbal**__ spells?' _They hadn't studied non-verbal spells yet. Although, Lily thought, taking her seat and unpacking her Potions kit, perhaps they would be learning non-verbal spells next…

'Settle down everyone, settle down,' boomed Professor Slughorn happily, 'honestly, you'd think a test would quieten you down-Professor Gaia said you were actually quite well-behaved…though I can't say the same for you,' he added to the Slytherins, 'Professor Flitwick said you were not so dignified…'

An hour and a half later, Lily found herself in Potions, slamming her books back into her bag. Another lesson where _Severus Snape_ had brewed a better Potion-it made her feel sick. His _Essence of Immaturity_ had been all different colours of the rainbow, swirling to create optical illusions, it had been making loud banging noises, and he'd even managed to make it produce rainbow-coloured bubbles in varying shapes and sizes that were unpoppable and blew around the room, each emitting a different tune. The very memory of it made Lily scowl; HER potion was only red, blue, green and purple, and her bubbles had only been small golf-ball shaped things that hovered above the potion, playing "God Save the Queen" until they popped, which caused several extremely off-key notes.

'Mr Snape, I wondered if I could talk to you a moment?' came Slughorn's voice across the room. Nobody else seemed to notice, too intent on heading up to lunch.

'Yes, sir?' said Severus timidly.

'Well, I must say, your brewing skills are coming on tremendously my boy, absolutely splendidly, and, well... I was wondering, well, next month, my select group of students will be meeting for a bit of a supper. You know how it is, have a little catch up, see how the school year's going…if they aren't working you too hard of course…I was wondering if you might join us?'

'Oh, I-I would be honoured, sir.'

'Very good, very good: I shall see you then!'

As Lily watched everyone begin to pour out of the dungeon doors, Slughorn leading, apparently quite eager to leave (and Lily suspected it might be because of the scowl on her face), she felt herself seething. _Snivellus SNAPE_, the completely stuck-up worm was in the Slug Club? That stupid, cheating weasel who aspired to be a Death Eater and had called her a _mudblood_, way back in fifth year, when they were friends, had somehow managed to impress Slughorn? TWO above-standard Potions! That was all he'd done! Lily had been making fantastic potions for years…not that Snape had been that bad either, come to think of it…but still!

'Hey Lily, are you alright?'

Lily looked up, her fists still clenching and unclenching.

'Oh, hi James…I-no it's just…aagh, stupid bloody _Snape_…'

'What'd he do?'

'No-I didn't mean he'd done anything…uh, just forget it...I'll talk to Professor Slughorn about it, not you. Sorry,' she added, 'I shouldn't've been muttering about these things anyway…it's none of my business anyway, I guess…'

She hitched her bag up and stormed out of the dungeon. She was half-way to the Great Hall when she realized she'd forgotten her best quill. More irritated by the minute, Lily rushed back to get it, only to pause outside the door, hearing voices. For the second time, she found herself freezing and listening to somebody else's conversation.

'What do you mean? I haven't done anything wrong!' came Severus's voice, harshly.

'Oh really?' came James's, 'look. YOU'RE suddenly a great whiz at Potions, which is making Lily cross-'

'Is it?'

Lily's mouth dropped open. Severus and James, not _killing_ each other: speaking somewhat civilly? WHAT on earth was going on?

'She's a fantastic Potion-maker, of course she'd be cross! Did you see her face? But anyway, why do you care? Oh well, that's not the point…look, the Slug's asked you to be part of his little organisation-'

'Yeah, so what?'

'_SO_, Lily's the only one in our year who's been clever or promising or whatever enough to get into that club! Look, you'll really upset her if you go.'

'Really?' Lily could hear the note of concern in Severus's voice.

'Yes, really,' James sounded irritable now. 'Just don't go, okay?'

'Look, why should I trust _you_? If I go, I'll get to see a lot of Lily. I bet you wouldn't like that, would you, big Quidditch Star that every girl flocks to. Every girl except Lily Evans.'

Lily heard the rustle of robes, and peered through the crack in the dungeon door, ajar, to see James holding Severus against the stone wall by the neck of his robes, 'Listen,' he hissed, and Lily had to press her ear against the door, 'You may not like me, and with good reason, but don't do it to Lily. She's worked so hard for this, and now, for some reason, you're trying to take it away from her-'

'I didn't-!'

'POTIONS IS HER BEST CLASS, HER _FAVOURITE _CLASS, OKAY SNIVELLUS?! Check with Slughorn-he'll tell you straight off that she'd be angry...irritated..sad..._crushed!_ Would you do that to her?'

'No,' came Severus's reply, quiet and ashamed, 'I'll talk to Professor Slughorn.'

'Good. But, wait…You're _listening _to me? Not trying to attack me, or getting angry at me for bossing you around?'

'We're talking about Lily. It's a serious subject…I just hope you aren't lying to me, _Potter._' Lily felt her cheeks burn, and quickly ducked behind a nearby suit of armour, as James came out of the door, clutching her quill.

As soon as he'd gone, Lily tore off in the other direction, determined to get to the Great Hall before him so he could give her the quill, no questions asked, but her head was pounding. _James was telling Severus not to do anything to upset her. What did that mean? And Severus was consenting to be told? _She sped up and ripped through a secret door concealed behind a tapestry of a Middle Ages banquet. _This day was just getting stranger and stranger._


	7. Chapter 7: Broken Windows

Books » Harry Potter » **All's Well That Ends Well**

Author: Rainbowserpent

1. Chapter 1:The Insanity of A Dumbledore2. Chapter 2: A SEVERE Excess of Phlegm3. Chapter 3: A Time of Changes4. Chapter 4: Changes of An Unlikely Manner5. Chapter 5: A Fear of Loneliness6. Chapter 6: The Secrets of Severus Snape7. Chapter 7: A Window Into A New World8. Chapter 8: Sweet Mary Malone9. Chapter 9: Friend or Foe?10. Chapter 10: Sniffles and Snuffles11. Chapter 11: A Massive Mistake?12. Chapter 12: Pottermonia13. Chapter 13: Trouble in Paradise14. Chapter 14: Inevitably15. Chapter 15:House-Elves and Sherbet Lemon16. Chapter 16: Never Eat Wet Toast Syndrome17. Chapter 17: Dinner by Candlelight18. Chapter 18: The Disappearing Act19. Chapter 19: Fear20. Chapter 20: Love Undone21. Dear Readers (A Notice)

Rated: T - English - Humor/Romance - Reviews: 78 - Published: 08-18-12 - Updated: 02-04-13

id:8441304

**This is going to be in 2 parts...it will continue as a 'part 2 of chapter 7' as the next update. I can't do much over the weekend, so I'll just write it on paper, then upload it later. :)**

**Oh and to anyone who hasn't studied German before, "Löffel" is said Lur-fell!**

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_Chapter 7_

_Broken_

_ Windows_

By the weekend, Lily found herself snowed over with homework. As a seventh year, facing her N.E.W.T's , this was to be expected, but there was a 15-inch essay for Professor McGonagall on Human Transfiguration, a report on: _The Dangers of The Essence of Immaturity (e.g. which effects does it have on the drinker?), _a list of the Ministry of Magic's CLASSIFICATIONS for Magical Beasts, and a two-scroll summary on The Evolution of Mending Charms for Professor Flitwick.

So it was with a rather resigned air that Lily trudged up to the library, carrying about two kilograms of books. The library was completely deserted and quiet, except for the steady scratching of someone's quill.

She settled herself down in her favourite spot near the window, and began flipping through her textbooks, searching…

After fifteen minutes of pouring over _Simply Charming Volume 7_, searching for a likely passage, Lily became dimly aware of a steady tap…tap…tap…_tap…tap…tap…tap, tap, tap_. Lily looked up. With a sudden ear-splitting noise, something came bursting through the window just in front of her desk, sending broken glass flying everywhere. There was a sudden stab in her arm, and Lily looked down to see a small sliver of glass embedded there, blood trickling around it. Pulling the glass out, and muttering _'Episky!',_ Lily leapt up, and dashed over to the window. A Quaffle lay underneath the window-frame, surrounded by a pool of shattered glass.

Furious, Lily stuck her head out the now glassless window. Several figures on broomsticks were hovering below the window, a few of them out of her sight. One that she could see, however, was none other than Sirius.

'SIRIUS BLACK I'M GOING TO SKIN YOU ALIVE!' she yelled.

'It wasn't me it was Ja-'

'_Potter?_ JAMES POTTER, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!'

'What have I done wrong _now?_' came an exasperated voice.

'YOU KNOW BLOODY WELL WHA-_what?_' Lily said suddenly, realizing the voice had come from behind her, and, spinning around, she saw none other than James Potter himself.

'What the-? Either you're very fast at running to the library, or you were never…' she trailed off, glancing back at the Quaffle.

'Ah, so that's what made that noise,' said James mildly, picking up the Quaffle and pulling out his wand, 'Sirius mentioned he'd be doing some Quidditch practice with that Barney Harper and Bess Jenkins…oh, and those twins, Jasmine and Riley Löffel.'

'_Ja_smine?'

'Yeah…'

'OH, so _that's _why he said "Ja-"…I thought he meant James, 'cause you're Quidditch Captain and all…'

'Nup, he didn't mean me. It's not an official practice, it's just Sirius mucking about so he can flirt with those girls who can fly-' Lily flinched. Sirius was taking _Mary_ to Hogsmeade. How dare he flirt with those girls? Her insides boiled with rage…she just hoped James was wrong. 'I couldn't do it anyway though,' James continued, completely unaware of Lily's rage with Sirus's stupidity, 'I've got to finish Flitwick, McGonagall _and_ Sluggy's homework-I can't afford to muck about…Sirius can 'cause he doesn't care, or he'll just get Remus or Peter to do it for him.'

'_What?_ That's CHEATING! Not only is he FLIRTING with other girls behind Mary's _back_, but he's getting other people to do his _homework?!_'

'Habits I've tried to talk him out of,' admitted James sadly, 'but he won't listen.' He sounded so sincere that Lily felt her heart give a funny little flutter.

'Anyway, shouldn't we fix the window? Just it might get a bit draughty, and Madam Pince would freak out. She left to complain about a Second Year creasing a page in _The Standard Book of Spells Grade Two…_'

'Ah…that's why she hasn't attacked me with a large and dusty encyclopaedia for shouting at Sirius and disturbing the peace in her library.'

'Well, I'm the only other person here, so it wouldn't have been that bad-trust me, Padfoot needs a bit of yelling-at from time to time.' He peered out the window, 'He's being quiet, hoping you'll forget about the Quaffle…_Repairo_,' he added.

'It's a bit hard to forget a whopping great Quaffle that flies through the window, but if Sirus wants to believe that,' snorted Lily, as the glass leapt up from the floor and back into place, melting into a clear unbroken sheet once more.

'What an idiot!' came Sirius's voice from below, 'bet she's forgotten all about it and gone back to her homework…thinks she's better than me, does she? Bloody hell, I could beat that Evans any day, the dolt. Yelling at _me_…bloody, stuck-up twit…'

'Hang on,' Lily said, pulling her wand out and peering out the window to see Sirius hovering below, now entertaining everyone with a rather animated mime of her anger, 'there's something I've always wanted to try…'

With all her might, she threw the Quaffle back through the window, engulfed in a shower of glass, which she quickly Transfigured into ice-cold water as it fell.

Several outraged cries and a satisfying _"thwack!"_ came from below. Peering through the yet again empty window frame in unison, James and Lily saw the group of fliers gasping and yelling, sopping wet, Sirius rubbing the back of his head and swearing spectacularly.

Lily smiled, _that'll teach him to flirt with someone other than Mary and call me an idiot, a dolt, and a stuck-up twit…hark who's talking Sirius Phineas Black, hark who's talking…_

Then her lip twisted into a mischievous expression, and she looked out of the corner of her eyes at James.

'Well…' he said slowly, 'I would say he _deserves _a good beating, except that he's my friend. I could say that was uncalled for, but…'

Lily raised an eyebrow, her lip still twisted into an expression that seemed to cheekily seek his approval. Some invisible sort of barrier seemed to break in his eyes. Tilting his head from side to side he said fairly, 'Meh…I'll look the other way.'

'That,' said Lily, mending the window just as Sirius came zooming up, yelling and shaking his fists, 'would be very wise.'


	8. Chapter 8: Sweet Mary Malone

CHAPTER EIGHT

_ Sweet Mary Malone_

When Madam Pince returned to her library, everything was spotless, as she had left it. Prowling around, _The Standard Book of Spells Grade Two_ still clutched in her bony talon-like hands, she inspected everything. Lily found herself holding her breath as the librarian stalked dangerously close to the newly-repaired window, circling like an animal of prey.

James, now only a few desks away from Lily, kept smiling as his quill etched out the incantation of a Stitching Spell. A smile seemed to be proof enough of murder for Madam Pince, and she swooped on him, shrieking, 'You! Boy! What happened?'

'Excuse me?' said James, looking up, surprised, from his work.

'_What HAPPENED?_ Something is out of line, I know it…I can feel it. Something is not right.'

Lily felt herself forcefully reminded of Miss Clavel from _Madeline_, a muggle cartoon and book series her parents used to read her, featuring a cheeky red-haired French girl called Madeline (Lily found herself fingering her hair), twelve little girls in two straight lines, and their teacher Miss Clavel who had the uncanny knack of knowing when "somesing ees not right…"

Lily suddenly blinked, and remembered where she was, to see Madam Pince glaring down at James. 'You will tell me this instant, or I will summon the Headmaster.'

'No you will _not_!' said Lily angrily.

'Yeah, who says he'll come anyway? You've just been rabbiting on at him for the last half hour, I doubt he's overly fond of you.'

It took them ten minutes and several cleaning spells, sitting on the rug in front of the fire in the common room, to remove the ink from their bags clothes and hair.

James was still helping spot-clean Lily's hair with his wand when Sirius and Mary came into the common-room, giggling and holding hands, Sirius clutching an opaque shimmering cloak.

Ducking her head below the couch that obscured them from view, Lily heard Sirius say, 'That was fun.'

Mary giggled, 'I'm not sure Filch will like the alterations to his office…'

'He deserves it though, he's a right foul git…good job on his filing cabinet by the way, I like the way you got all his papers to spill everywhere, did I mention?'

'Yeah…three times.'

'Oh…right,' Sirius laughed nervously.

Lily and James, hidden behind the couch, tried to avoid each other's eyes, trying not to burst out laughing…

'Why are you so nervous around me Black? I don't bite.'

'I-I don't…'

There was an awkward silence, punctuated only by the crackling of the fire.

'So how did you get the Cloak?'

'It's Prongs's…I'll just have to get rid of the smell of cat pee before I give it back.'

'I know, Mrs Norris is the most annoying kitten-and Filch dotes on her, even though she pees on everything.'

James's mouth dropped open, and he looked completely outraged.

'_That Cloak's been in my family ages!'_ he hissed furiously, _'and now he's borrowed it without asking and got bloody cat piddle on it!_'

'Don't worry,' Lily whispered back, 'if you use several Cleaning Spells in a certain sequence it'll come out in no time.'

'How do you know?'

'I find it kind of useful to know which spells to use to clean up after you've spilled someone's guts everywhere…'

James looked at her, appalled, and Lily felt a grin spreading across her face.

'So I guess I'll see you tomorrow sweet Mary Malone,' came Sirius's voice. James and Lily simultaneously began fake-vomiting.

Lily, peering over the couch saw Mary kiss Sirius, then retreat up the staircase to the dormitory.

Sirius stood there looking star-struck and giddy.

'Did you just see what I saw-?' whispered Lily, glancing across at James

But James's face said it all. He burst out laughing, and Lily couldn't help but join in.

'What the-? By Merlin's baggy pants, what the _hell? _Prongs? EVANS? What're you-? Why-? Did you see…?'

'"_Sweet Mary Malone"_?' snorted James, 'you're still calling her that? Bloody hell Padfoot I thought you were joking!'

Lily snorted loudly.

'You know it's very unladylike to snort Evans,' snapped Sirius, which made her burst into fits of hysterical laughter, 'anyway what are you two _doing _here? TOGETHER? Oh shut up Evans. You have no right you two-'

'Oh really?' sniggered James, winking at Lily, 'Oooh I'm afraid-get your lawyer onto us will you? Start a court case about rights? Well then I'll try not to laugh too much when you two begin giving each other knitted sweaters and baking cookies together-ooh has she started doing up your school ties for you yet?'

'Mouth shut Prongs, mouth SHUT!' said Sirius, 'or do I have to make you?' Sirius pulled out his wand.

'Yeah yeah, in your dreams,' sniggered James, and escorted Sirius to bed.

'You know I DID have a dream about blasting you into oblivion once James,' came Sirius's voice faintly.

Lily collected her things, and, still laughing, headed up to bed.

'Hey Lily have you heard Mary's news?' asked Jenny as she entered the room and got into her pyjamas.

'Oh no, I haven't told Lily yet-' began Mary in a highly superior voice.

'Mary, it's not very interesting news now, is it? You kissed Sirius, so what?'

Mary's mouth dropped open, 'I haven't told you yet!'

'Oh, and by the way,' said Lily, getting into bed, 'wrecking Filch's office isn't much of a romantic first date.'

Mary gaped at her. 'I-you-how did you-?'

'I know everything that goes on around here,' said Lily, straight faced, rolling over.

Perhaps it wasn't going to be such an uneventful year after all...


	9. Chapter 9: Friend or Foe?

**Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing! I'll try to update as much as possible… and thanks to fairydancer221 for reminding me to address the issue of a certain **_**Snivellus Snape**_**-this chapter is dedicated, with thanks, to you! ;)**

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_Chapter 9_

_Friend or Foe?_

Monday passed relatively uneventfully, except for Sirius sending a dozen paper aeroplanes zooming around the History of Magic Class, beating people over the head, which lead to a full-scale paper aeroplane war, which went completely unnoticed by Professor Binns, who continued in his plodding monotonous voice about the Seventeenth Century Centaur Rights Campaign, in which several herds of centaurs joined forces and laid siege to the Ministry of Magic, using several dozen of the burlier Centaurs to guard all of the Floo network, the rest to completely surround the building.

Lunch ended in tears after Sirius and Mary had a food fight and managed to cover everyone within fifty metres except each other with asparagus, lettuce, tomato, cheese and mayonnaise-luckily they didn't start on the soups or stews. (It took Lily five minutes to help get the mayonnaise out of James's hair-_I mean, he IS sitting next to me…and he took the ink out of MY hair yesterday_, she told herself firmly, _I don't like him or anything…_)

The pair were then seen holding hands, which caused about three quarters of the girls present to go into hysterics that they had missed out on going out with Sirius Black…again.

People were still wiping lettuce, tomato and omelette from themselves as they lined up for Potions, and Lily could hear several of the girls whispering about how to get rid of Mary, currently laughing at Sirius's jokes.

'I wonder where the Slug is,' said James, glancing at his watch.

'_I _wonder which potion we'll be brewing!' said Lily excitedly.

James glanced significantly over at Severus who gave a small nod. Lily pretended to look the other way, determined not to let on what she'd heard last week…

'Sorry I'm late everybody, sorry I'm late, excuse me…' puffed Professor Slughorn.

He was carrying several shimmering white horns.

'Uh, Professor, what are they?' asked Rachael Dail, one of the Slytherins.

'Unicorn horns Miss Dail, the foals have just shed them to grow their adult horns. See how these ones furl right at the top … ? Yes, see it's just there. That shows it's a foal's horn…it's a bit like when we lose our first teeth.'

The class chattered and joked when they entered the dungeon, as always.

Lily, waiting at the back of the line, heard several gasps, crashes of people bumping into things and a shriek of terror from the classroom.

'What, what is it? What's going on?' asked Lily, standing on tiptoe to see in.

As they entered the classroom, a few people began to cough and splutter. The entire room was filled with a thick black fog, making it impossible to see.

'Ouch that was my foot!'

'No-don't stand here-'

'WAIT, there's a table just there…'

'Why the bloody hell is it so foggy?'

Lily found herself a space in the room, and felt the others stumbling around her.

'Today's lesson is meant to be fun,' said Slughorn, 'and hopefully you'll find this potion most…_illuminating_.'

'Ooh, Professor, we wouldn't be making an Iridescent Solution, would we?' asked Lily, putting her hand up out of habit, even though no-one could see it.

Slughorn chuckled, 'Indeed we would, Miss Evans. Quite a useful little potion, best brewed in a condensed and darkened environment, which reacts with the unicorn horn and fire gnat venom, creating a glowing brew.' Lily frowned, hearing the scratching of someone's quill.

'I've laid out a small jar of glow-worms at each table so you can see what you're doing,' continued Slughorn's voice, 'but they'll only glow for a certain amount of time, so I'll wait until you're all positioned before I light my wand and activate them.'

'There's still time for a bit of a snog before he lights those glow-worms,' Lily heard Sirius say to Mary, who giggled.

'And by the way Mr Black,' said Slughorn and everyone began to bump into things, trying desperately to find their tables, 'I've put a magnetic field around Miss Macdonald and yourself…as I've heard she's your latest victim. So if you try to approach each other, trust me, it will not be possible, Black, because I have heard you are rather…er, _hazardous_ in darkened environments…'

Sirius swore loudly, 'Stupid old Slug,' he muttered, 'ah well, I'll just have to snog someone else-joking!' he added as a red jet of light flew across the room from Mary's wand and Slughorn yelled 'No light, please! You'll upset the glow worms!'

'You so much as look at another girl Sirius Black, and I'll blast you into next year,' said Lily dangerously, wand drawn, 'Got it? Don't you cross Mary Macdonald or I will make your life hell.'

And with that, she strode over to a table (or what she thought was a table), and collided with a shelf, tripped over something and heard the smash of a jar. Feeling hundreds of little creatures wriggling beneath her hands, Lily said _'Accio glow worms!'_ Her hands immediately filled with the wriggling ball of worms. 'Repairo,' she muttered, and stuffed as many worms into the jar as was possible, straightened up and placed it on what she hoped was the right table. Then she turned around and walked headfirst into someone.

Strong arms set her right again, and suddenly she felt a jolt as she smelt a familiar scent of broom polish, some sort of conditioner that smelt faintly of mint and thyme, and the smell of good quality ink.

'James?' she whispered huskily.

'Don't be surprised,' came James's voice, and she could almost hear him smiling, 'we seem to have a track record of bashing into each other.'

Lily laughed nervously, then promptly fell over, glad, as James helped her up again, that it was dark, or he'd be able to see the bright shade of beetroot creeping across her face.

'_Lumos!'_ came Professor Slughorn's voice, and with a gasp of relief, Lily saw the room lighting up with a reddish glow. Spotting Mary, Jenny and Mirabelle at a table, Lily picked her way through the other desks, having disentangled herself from several bundles of dried nettles, trying to ignore the feeling that someone was watching her…

As Slughorn explained how to handle the unicorn horns, fire gnat venom and acid-seed juice, Lily could hear the scratching of a quill again and looked around.

Over in the corner, illuminated by the dull glow of his glow worms, Severus's quill was moving as fast as his hand would allow, scribbling notes…onto his Potions book!

Lily was shocked. What a waste of a good book! She knew perfectly well he couldn't afford those books easily…had he stolen someone else's? How dare he?!

While the potions simmered away, glowing brightly, Lily tried to compose her thoughts. She was so distracted she didn't notice when Professor Slughorn praised her potion, or when Sirius set Timothy Blakely's trousers on fire.

_Why did Severus have to write in his textbook anyway? No no no NO, his name's SNAPE. We are NOT on a first-name basis anymore_, Lily reminded herself. _He called me a mudblood._

And though it had been two years ago, when they were in _Fifth _Year, she realized it still hurt her, after all this time. _Snivellus _had betrayed her trust when she had been trying to protect him from James publicly humiliating him, when James had still been stupid, and known as _Potter_.

Lily hung back after class as everyone filed out, remarking on how different the room looked now Professor Slughorn had got rid of the fog.

'Hey Sev-er, _Snape_,' Lily called, 'could I talk to you for a minute?'

'I-um…yeah,' said Severus in a small voice, looking completely flustered.

James, leaving, stopped dead, eyes darting from Severus to Lily and back again.

'If you think I'm going to leave you two-'

'I'll meet you in the Great Hall James,' said Lily forcefully.

'Yes Lily,' he said, 'but you, Snape, if I hear you so much as _think _something rude-'

'You'll blast his head off, yeah James, I can look after myself, just leave!'

'Alright,' he said dejectedly, and followed the rest of the class.

'Since when were you on a first-name basis with that git?' sneered Severus, face flushed.

'Since he grew up and became Head Boy,' said Lily coolly.

'Old habits die hard.'

'And you would know, wouldn't you, because you and your little Death Eater pals still snoop around practicing dangerous and probably illegal magic!'

There was an uncomfortable silence.

'What did you want to talk to me about, Lily Evans?' Severus sounded angry.

'Why were you writing in your potions textbook? It's wasteful, and you won't be able to see the instructions-and I know how much work at the muggle post office you had to do to afford it,' she added.

'No you don't-it's none of your business. Who's to say my family aren't rich and happy, like everyone else's?'

'Oh _please_,' scoffed Lily, 'That's the same pair of robes you've been wearing since fourth year-your mother just patches them and adds several inches of fabric down the bottom-you can even see it! And as for _happy_, well, your parents never exactly got along, but _now_…well, I can hardly study at home with my window open without hearing them fighting.'

Lily saw his fingers shaking as he reached into his bag and slammed something onto the table.

'What's-? Oh.' Said Lily, gazing at the scuffed copy of _Advanced Potion Making, _'It's your sixth year potions book.'

Skimming through it, she saw page after page with Severus's cramped writing in the margins.

'I've written down some of the spells I've made up…and some we made up together in fourth and fifth year…they're up the back, see?'

Lily stared at the top of the page, captioned _Sev & Lily_: _Muffliato-Private-conversation enabling Charm, _and saw, in her own neat script _(fills ears with buzzing, preventing hearing of "victims")_. Looking closer, she saw it was pasted in from Severus's notebook where she'd written it down, so many years ago…there were two more: _Langlock-Tongue-tying Curse _then Lily's writing_, (glues tongue to roof of mouth, preventing speech), _ and_, Toenail Growth Hex-Grows Toenails _and _(particularly fast toenail-grower, very painful. NB: Sev came up with this one mainly)._

It could be like this. She could go back to being friends with Severus. They could make up spells and insult Potter…but James wasn't so bad now…in fact, Lily found herself wondering if she fancied him…no, impossible…actually, maybe…no, she'd figure that out later.

But the other problem was that Severus had called her a mudblood. She couldn't stop thinking about that. It had hurt. It really had. Even though her friends had warned her against him. Even though she knew he and his Death-Eaters-in-training were always cursing muggle-born people and using Dark Magic.

It filled her with bitterness, and it was as if a knife sliced through her as Severus said, 'Don't you remember Lily? We were going to write a book of our own spells called _'Spells Spelled Out by Sev and Lily_'. We were best friends…'

'Yes, I do remember,' she snapped, 'and I remember you still wouldn't stop your Death Eater friends from attacking my other friends, even after I BEGGED you, and you still hung out with them, you would always make fun of Gryffindor in front of me, even though I am a Gryffindor, and proud of it, and _then _you called me a…a…' She couldn't say it.

'Lily I'm sorry.'

'You've already said that, but it doesn't stop you calling all muggle-borns that. It doesn't stop you following those Death Eaters' kids around like a lost dog!'

'Who are you calling a dog! At least I don't go around trying to get people in trouble for writing in their books! What's it to you anyway? Why do you care, why should you boss me around? Just because you're Head Girl along with _Potter_, the toerag.'

'He is not a toerag! He's grown up now, he's grown a brain-'

'No he hasn't!' Severus sounded hysterical, 'you're just telling yourself that! You're just falling for him like every other girl in this godforsaken school! Potter the Quidditch hero with his messy hair and big head! He can't be trusted Lily-'

'Do NOT talk about James like that. He is a good person-he always had it in him, and now he's finally TRYING and you're just judging him like a prejudice old man who doesn't know any better. Tell me honestly Severus Snape, has he attacked you _once _this term? Has he even said something RUDE to you? Because you've said rude things to him, and he hasn't retaliated.'

'No, he hasn't. Yet-that doesn't mean he won't. He's a right foul git Lily-'

'Stop calling me that, and grow up Snivellus! Get over yourself-James has changed, okay?'

'Oh so when's your wedding?'

'There's no _talking _to you Snape!' Yelled Lily angrily, 'If I want to go out with James Potter I will, alright? But he mightn't even ask me now, because he's grown up!'

Snatching up her things, she stormed for the door.

'There was a time once when you wouldn't have even dreamed of saying that.' Came Severus's quiet voice.

'Saying _what_?' snapped Lily bitterly, walking out of the room. As she slammed the door, she could have sworn she heard a sob.

Furious, Lily marched along to the Great Hall.

'Hey Lily,' came James's voice, 'I was waiting…are you alright?' he added seeing her wiping her eyes and giving a small sniff.

'Yes I-it's nothing, I'm fine.'

'Okay, which curse should I use on Snape?'

If James had said that to her last year, she would have yelled at him and told him to lay off Severus for once, but the joke was evident in his voice and she knew he wouldn't really…and besides, she felt like cursing Snape herself.

She smiled and said, 'Any curse that'd shut him up.'

'Wow, he must've really upset you Lily flower,' said James, giving her a hug.

Lily smiled, and hugged him back, 'I'm sure you'd be ecstatic to find out what we were arguing about,' she muttered to herself.

The teachers seemed to be easing off the homework load so that everybody could enjoy the first Hogsmeade weekend, and therefore everybody was extremely rowdy in the last lesson of the day, Defence Against the Dark Arts.

'OI, EVERYONE ZIP IT!' yelled Professor Gaia after half the lesson trying to silence them, 'I know you're excited by the weekend, but it's not here yet, so learn to live with it, okay? You've got another half hour until your glorious time off, kapiche?'

When everybody went straight back to chatting, Lily saw an evil smile spread across Professor Gaia's face. 'Alright,' she said, 'TESTS everybody! I'll be handing your tests back now.' There was a dead silence.

Lily felt a lead weight drop into her stomach. _No, calm down_, she told herself, _I'm sure I did fine in that test_...

Professor Gaia began handing back the tests. Sighs of releif, chatter and general thankfulness washed over the room as the tests were handed out.

'I never liked Dark Magic,' James was saying, 'so it's good that I got a good mark so I can beat the pants off anyone who practices it, right?'

'Uh...' came Remus's reply.

Peter chuckled at how clever James was, and Sirius, receiving his test paper back waved it around.

'Haha, look at that all you suckers! I got an A!'

'Oh really?' said Mary, sounding completely unimpressed, 'You got "Acceptable"? Come on, even I got an "Exceeds Expectations", and Jenny got "Outstanding"!'

'Yeah but it really peeves my parents when I get even average grades at DEFENCE AGAINST the Dark Arts-they think it should be just Dark Arts...so, let's see, hm...they might be receiving quite a disappointing letter soon about how good I am at Defence Against the Dark Arts.'

Lily laughed along with everyone else, but stopped suddenly as her test was handed back.

'25%' was written across the top of her test in colourful flashing ink. She quickly stuffed the test into her bag so no-one would see, trying not to let the disappointment burning inside her show on the outside. She had earned her very first 'T' in anything. All because Jen was into "spot-tests" where you didn't have time to revise. No, all because she was stupid. Was she really?

What would happen in a real duel, if she forgot the incantation? She would probably die, that was the reality of it. Lily's face suddenly morphed into a determined expression. She was going to be the top of the class. Better than Jenny. Better than Professor Gaia had ever been. And much better than Snivellus Snape, who was just in front of her, the coloured numbers atop his test proclaiming he'd acheived 98%. Well she was going to beat them all out. She'd do extra revision and everything...starting on Sunday, after the dreaded Hogsmeade visit.

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**I know about every FanFiction author says it, and you're probably exceptionally tired of seeing it, but if you could review (constructive criticism and all that) that would be fantastic, and I'd be almost as ecstatic as James if he found out that Lily defended him so fiercly.**


	10. Chapter 10: Sniffles and Snuffles

Books » Harry Potter » **All's Well That Ends Well**

Author: Rainbowserpent

1. Chapter 1:The Insanity of A Dumbledore2. Chapter 2: A SEVERE Excess of Phlegm3. Chapter 3: A Time of Changes4. Chapter 4: Changes of An Unlikely Manner5. Chapter 5: A Fear of Loneliness6. Chapter 6: The Secrets of Severus Snape7. Chapter 7: Broken Windows8. Chapter 8: Sweet Mary Malone9. Chapter 9: Friend or Foe?10. Chapter 10: Sniffles and Snuffles11. Chapter 11: A Massive Mistake?12. Chapter 12: Pottermonia13. Chapter 13: Trouble in Paradise14. Chapter 14: Inevitably15. Chapter 15:House-Elves and Sherbet Lemon16. Chapter 16: Never Eat Wet Toast Syndrome17. Chapter 17: Dinner by Candlelight18. Chapter 18: The Disappearing Act19. Chapter 19: Fear20. Chapter 20: Love Undone21. Dear Readers (A Notice)

Rated: T - English - Humor/Romance - Reviews: 78 - Published: 08-18-12 - Updated: 02-04-13

id:8441304

**Hi everyone, I added some more STUFF onto the last chapter as a bit of a filling-in-the time thing, so please read before you read this one... ;) Gotta go!**

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Chapter 10

_Snuffles_

Saturday dawned bright and pleasant, and it took Lily a while to remember it was the weekend. Sitting up in bed, hair doing its best to escape the loose plait, she yawned, rubbed some sleep from her eyes, and picked up _The Tales of Tristan Ternshaw, Outdoor Sorcerer (now includes pictures!)_.

'Ooh, whatcha reading Lily?' came Mary's voice from beside her. Lily jumped, and looked up to see Mary peering over her shoulder at the picture of Tristan Ternshaw, smiling as he Levitated a strange mutant baby crocodile hatchling, then turning to wink at Lily every now and again.

'Tristan Ternshaw?' said Mary.

'What's wrong with him?' snapped Lily, fondly turning a page.

'Well you could say he's-'

'Extremely good looking,' said Jenny.

'A hunk,' said Mary.

'Cute,' said Jessie.

'_Gorgeous_,' breathed Bethany.

'Oh my god you guys!' yelled Lily, 'you are just so…_so-'_

'_Gorgeous_?' sniggered Jenny in a scarily convincing imitation of the dreamy, breathless voice Bethany (now looking suitably embarrassed) had used.

'NO! _You're_ just irritating! Do you _ever _think of anything other than sex appeal? He writes good books-he's actually camped out in the wild with nothing but a tent and his wand, no joke.'

'You actually read that?' asked Mary, 'I just go through and look at all the pictures of him…'

'You're serious?'

'Speaking of Sirius,' said Jenny, 'Mary, what are you going to wear today?'

'What do you mean _wear_?' asked Lily, confused.

Jessie sniggered, 'What, d'you think she's going to go starkers?'

"NO! I-that's completely ridiculous-go where?'

'You know thinking about it,' said Mary thoughtfully, not listening to a word Lily was saying, 'Sirius would probably find it really amusing if I went starkers.'

Lily's eyebrows shot right up her forehead. That's what they were talking about. Their various dates in Hogsmeade, the reason she was being deserted. She was beginning to wonder whether she should go at all…

'You'd better not go anywhere near Sirius Black without at least three layers of clothing on, or I'll wring both your necks,' said Lily threateningly.

'As if I'd go naked Lily, it's a joke,' said Mary.

'I've got a few things you could wear, in my wardrobe…' Jessie was saying.

'Ooh, and I'll do your hair!' said Bethany.

'I've got a really nice dress,' said Jenny excitedly, 'you could borrow it-it would really suit you. I'll just be wearing jeans and a t-shirt: Danny doesn't care.'

'And Sirius does?' asked Mary.

The other girls looked at each other, trying their best not to laugh…

'I'll get you the dress,' said Jenny quickly, leaping up and opening the wooden wardrobe, divided into five sections, one for each girl.

'I can do your make-up,' said Jessie.

'How reassuring,' muttered Lily bitterly to herself:_ Really?_ _These girls, her friends, who she thought she knew better, were fussing and going all girly over a couple of guys? They were planning their hair and make-up, and choosing DRESSES? What had the world come to?_

'Oh, actually I've got a few,' came Jenny's voice from deep inside the cupboard, 'd'you want to try them all on, to see which goes better?' she emerged, holding up several colourful dresses.

'Hey Jenny,' said Lily slowly, as the other girls found a fold-out screen for Mary to dress behind for a "grand unveiling" effect, 'if you're such a tomboy, why do you have so many dresses?'

'A few of them belonged to my girly older sister,' said Jenny, handing Mary a dress heavily decorated with real, everlasting spring flowers, 'but the thing I've found is a lot of them I really like- and I'm not a girly-girl, but it's actually much more impressive to be able to wear a dress and still be tough.'

'That,' said Lily, turning the page to see Tristan smiling dazzlingly up at her 'is surprisingly good logic Jen.'

Lily trudged down the slushy track, her hands shoved deep into the pockets of Jessie's fashionable purple cardigan. The girls, now chattering and flirting in a large group quite a way in front of her, had convinced both Lily and Jessie to get dressed up to prove you didn't need a boyfriend to be fun and look "_gorgeous"_.

Lily smiled as she remembered them niggling and nagging then pleading on bended knee, and finally having to bribe her by saying it would be sexist not to get all dressed up-it would prove she thought women needed a man by their side to feel good about themselves. This had convinced her, and she had launched into a long lecture about how sexist and stupid it was, that they even got time (while she wasn't paying attention to them, except when they poked her with curling irons by accident when she spoke too animatedly) to do her hair and had convinced her to wear Jessie's trendy purple cardigan, her good pair of jeans and some neat little shoes with flowers on them that Mary had forced onto her. She was now really regretting them, and wanted to throw them off and go barefoot, and was just considering what the state of her socks would be after when a voice said in her ear, 'I thought you weren't dressing up and going with anyone to Hogsmeade.'

With a little start, Lily whipped around to see James, walking beside her, carrying a bulging shoulder bag, wearing jeans and a faded t-shirt, grinning slightly.

'No,' Lily shook her head and let out an exasperated little sigh, 'the girls just convinced me to dress up to prove I don't need a boyfriend to dress up and have fun.'

'Who needs a boyfriend to dress up and have fun?' asked James, confused, 'that sounds a bit stupid and reliant on guys. And to be honest, we're pretty unreliable sometimes.'

'That's exactly what I always tell the girls in our classes…'

They began a lengthy discussion about how sexist some people could be, and how stupid boys could be ("no offence, by the way James."). This topic lasted them about until they were down at Hogsmeade, when Lily's face screwed up in pain.

'What is it? Are you alright?

James's face was lined with concern.

Lily pulled the stupid, girly shoes off her feet, 'I've got a massive blister now…stupid ningningning shoes!'

'Ning-ning-ning?' asked James.

'Best swearwords ever,' said Lily, leaping around a puddle so as not to get her socks wet, 'you know I think I'll go to Honeydukes…'

'Ok, sorry I won't interrupt. See you 'round Lily,' said James, waving cheerfully, and heading off toward Dervish and Bangs, the shoulder-bag swinging casually from his hand.

Startled at how thoughtful James was being, Lily quickly skipped into the nearest shop to keep her feet dry. Looking up, she realized it was the Three Broomsticks.

It was full of people laughing and chattering, bustling around as they collected their drinks. The bar had always had a hazy, warm mist that engulfed those inside it, and Lily was surprised she could even see herself in the mirror behind the counter. She scowled at the purple cardigan. It looked so _girly_.

'Ow!' she said suddenly, as several people stepped on her toes.

Seeing Sirius and Mary, Lily began to make her way over. Then she stopped. They were sitting in a corner, holding hands and looking far too busy to be interrupted.

Lily turned around, and saw Jenny laughing with Danny…they wouldn't mind if she gate-crashed their private little moment…no, she wouldn't do that to Jenny, her friend. The guilt would eat away at her, knowing that Danny would be uncomfortable-they had had several arguments about stupid things like how important school was (Danny thought that grades were the most important thing in the world, and Lily disagreed, saying that if you got a bad mark there was no point dwelling on it-not that she was doing that with her Defence Against the Dark Arts mark or anything…).

Over at another table, Bethany was laughing with several other Seventh-Years…but Riley Conner was one of them, and Lily very much wanted to avoid him. She'd gone out with him at the end of Fifth-Year, and bitterly regretted it, as he was a complete sexist jerk, so basically their grand first date had ended with Riley sitting alone at the very table he was now, covered head-to-toe in Butterbeer and somebody's fruit salad topped with whipped cream.

Lily quickly ducked out of sight as Riley glanced toward the door, and made her way (trying to avoid everyone else's feet) to the counter and ordered a Butterbeer. Madam Rosmerta, the attractive young barmaid, accepted the payment and handed her a bottle, saying, with a wink, 'If I were you I'd avoid that Riley Conner-he wasn't very happy when you upended that fruit salad on his head-yelling about "that stupid Lily Evans"…' Lily looked surprised. 'I remember everything that goes on in my bar,' Rosmerta explained, 'and if I were you I'd also steer clear of that Adam Gerdal…he's been asking after you and your friends lately.'

Surprised and a little scared by just how much Rosmerta's knew, Lily took her Butterbeer and made to head out the door, when she bumped into James.

'Oh-sorry,' she said.

'Good thing you hadn't opened that,' said James, glancing pointedly at the bottle of Butterbeer, 'or it'd be a complete nightmare to get off…apparently Dervish and Bangs don't remove stains.'

'What?' asked Lily, confused.

James pulled the opaque silvery cloak out of his bag. 'It still smells of cat pee! It's disgusting. I've tried just about every cleaning spell there is!'

'Hang on,' Lily handed her Butterbeer to James and pulled out her wand, '_Skurge!'_ A trail of bubbles shot from her wand and covered the Cloak, then began to disappear.

James sniffed it, 'Hey, it doesn't reek anymore! Thanks! I wonder if it'd still work, like, you know, make people invisible?'

'Well there's only one way to find out,' said Lily, accepting her Butterbeer back. She took the Cloak from James, and, stooping slightly, threw it over them both.

'Bend down you idiot,' hissed Lily. 'Okay, is anyone shooting us strange looks because the two of us are squished under an ordinary cloak in the middle of a crowded bar?'

'Nup,' said James.

'Then that means we're invisible,' said Lily, 'okay, let's take it off now-'

'Wow, wow, wow, wait a minute,' said James, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.

'What?'

'Let's go spy on Padfoot…he looks quite busy over there with "sweet Mary Malone".'

'Oh god James, _no!_ It's disturbing enough having to watch them sit there snogging each other…'

But James had already began dodging through the crowd, and Lily had to hurry to keep up with him as the Cloak began to slip off her…

'We can't do this,' she hissed, 'it's dishonest.'

'Padfoot owes me,' said James, 'he let Mrs Norris piddle on my Invisibility Cloak. I think I'm allowed to be just a _little _dishonest.'

'But what about Mary, what's she done to _me_? I probably shouldn't-' Lily was saying as they neared Sirius and Mary's table.

'That cardigan for a start, didn't you say you loathed it entirely? She's the one who did your hair up and tried to put make-up on you-she deserves it.'

Lily's mouth curved into an evil smile, 'Alright,' she said simply.

They snuck up to stand behind Mary and Sirius, who had finally stopped kissing, and were laughing and joking.

'-I know. If we don't beat Slytherin then I'm probably going to jump off the Astronomy Tower.'

'You don't mean that Siri.'

'Urgh, Siri? Is that the best nickname you could come up with Mary Malone?'

'No, actually…'

Suddenly, Lily sneezed. Holding her nose, she still couldn't disguise the sniffling sound. She held her nose, but couldn't stop herself giving an extra-loud sniff.

Mary obviously heard the sniffling, and she said suddenly, 'Sirius-you can be called Snuffles. Like we used to call my old dog!'

'_What?_' Sirius almost choked on his Butterbeer, 'how-I didn't tell you-how did you know I turn into a-'

James, eyes wide, suddenly whispered _'Silencio!'_ and Sirius's mouth continued to open and close with no sound coming out. He looked oddly like a fish, thought Lily, and completely surprised at losing the control of his voice.

Mary, who hadn't noticed, continued, 'Well I do Astronomy too you know, _duh_, I was bound to find out sometime.'

James and Lily both looked terrified. Had Mary found out about Remus…? But somehow Lily knew there was something more to it than that…why had Sirius said 'I turn into a-' ?

Sirius's eyes bulged, though still no sound came out of his open mouth, and this time, Lily was sure he wouldn't have been able to speak from shock, even if James hadn't put a Silencing Charm on him.

'What, it's not such a big secret,' continued Mary, 'I mean, nobody will really care, it's just kind of cute.'

Lily furrowed her eyebrows. _What WAS Mary talking about?_

'What do you mean?' came Sirius's voice, and Lily, looking across at James, wand drawn, knew the Charm must have been lifted, 'what are you talking about?'

'Your name, Sirius. There's a star called Sirius, the dog star,' said Mary, confused, 'what on earth were _you_ talking about?'

'Oh,' Sirius sounded immensely relieved, 'nothing, I-Snuffles is a great nickname.'

'But you were talking about something else. I know it Sirius, you can't pretend-you've got a secret to do with a dog and turning into someth-'

But Sirius, obviously terrified she'd stumble across the answer Lily was pondering herself, quickly seized Mary and began kissing her again.

'Ugh-too much information,' whispered Lily, as she and James tried to leave as quickly as possible, trying to ignore the strange slurping noises coming from the direction of the table of Sweet Mary Malone and Snuffles.

'Well, that's one way to shut her up,' snorted James, as they pulled the Cloak off and tried not to look back.

'Gross-they look like they're trying to eat each other's face! Yuck, I feel sick,' said Lily, 'why don't we just…run!'

Sprinting out the door, Lily started laughing, and she could hear James, right behind her, exploding into laughter as well.

Breathless and giggly, they burst into Honeydukes. Nobody noticed-the customers were all too busy ogling at the impressively colourful and explosive displays of sugary delights, and all of the staff were busy climbing up special ladders to get jars of _Time-Stopping Fudge,_ _Levitating Sherbet, Crawling Jellies, _and _Spun Fruit-Strap Shoelaces._

'What's _this_?' asked James, picking up a Fizzing Whizzbee.

'Oh those? They apparently contain Billywig stings-'

'Seriously?'

'Yep, but most people don't know it.' James quickly dropped the small powder-covered sweet back into the barrel.

'Probably wise,' said Lily, browsing along the shelves, 'apparently they're imported from Australia.'

'Where's Australia?'

Lily gave him a long stare, and, after figuring that he seemed to be quite genuine, said, 'It's…South. Near Antarctica, or India or somewhere I think…it's the biggest Island, and it's apparently really hot...and they make Fizzing Whizbees there…out of Billywig Stings.'

'How do _you _know?' asked James, picking up a jar to peer at the strange, spindly-legged contents.

'My father owned a sweet shop before he became a mechanic…and I thought I'd do a bit of research on Wizard Sweets. And plus, if they contain the stings of a creature classified "Competent wizard should cope" on the Ministry of Magic's Creature Classifications list, I don't think I'll ever touch one of those sweets.'

'Makes sense to me,' said James, 'Ok, let me test your sweet shop knowledge…what's this stuff?' asked James, holding up a packet of _Tongue-Dissolving Chewing Gum._

'It's a specially-formulated gum that completely dissolves your tongue for two to three hours-then the Charm wears off…'

'Sounds like Padfoot trying to charm every girl he sets eyes on,' said James, putting down the chewing gum and inspecting a jar of _Firebreathing Lollipops_, 'he takes them on a date and charms them senseless, then after about two months, the charm wears off and they realize he's just a lazy layabout with long hair and a charming grin.'

'Do they really?' asked Lily, taking the jar from him.

'Nup, they completely fall for him and stay fallen, even the ones he dumps…I just wish they had more sense. Padfoot's reckless-he doesn't like to stay in one place, with one person, for very long…and that seems to make every girl in the castle fawn over him.'

'Not me,' said Lily, handing him a sachet of _Blinding Powder (eat it and go temporarily blind! Results only last for 15-30 minutes each, experience may vary)_.

'Yeah well, trust me, that's a good thing,' said James sagely, dipping his hand into a small cardboard box of _Eating Jellies_, then yelping and quickly withdrawing it, several small, wriggling jelly-dragons with dangerously sharp teeth attached to his finger.

'I think they're being literal when they say _Eating_ Jellies,' sniggered Lily.

'Oh really? Would you like some?' said James, grinning, waving his hand in front of her face.

'Nooo thanks!' said Lily, ducking as the pointy-toothed sweets came within close proximity of her head, 'why don't we look at some of the other sweets-sweets that don't try to bite your hand off?'

They bought a large bag of Levitating Sherbet and some Floating Fairy Floss that you had to catch before it turned itself into various flying objects, and Lily bought a packet of _Tongue-Dissolving Chewing Gum_. The shop-owner, who couldn't get the Eating Jellies off James's hand said he could have them for free (not that this thrilled James too much).

'So why'd you buy that _Tongue-Dissolving gum_?' asked James, as they walked back up to the castle, eating one of the jellies off his hand, 'don't you like having a tongue?'

'Oh, I'm perfectly happy having a tongue-quite useful to talk with, actually. No, I'm going to add it to my vast collection of stuff...payback items, I guess.'

'Payback items?' asked James, looking nervous, 'why would you need to pay anyone back for…anything?'

'Let's just say,' said Lily, giving James a cheeky grin, 'that if Sirius Black so much as slightly upsets Mary, he won't be able to talk, eat, or go around putting his tongue into any poor girl's mouth, 'cause he won't have a tongue.'

James laughed, 'I can't say he doesn't deserve it! Hey, d'you want a jelly crocodile? They're getting quite annoying…'

Walking behind them, Mary and Sirius saw James holding up his hand for Lily to eat the squirming Eating Jelly, and Mary sighed happily. 'Aaaaaw, aren't they so cute together Snuffles?' she said.

Sirius, watching James and Lily laughing together, said, 'Yeah, they're perfect for each other.' Then he added under his breath, 'and it's about bloody time they started realizing it.'


	11. Chapter 11: A Massive Mistake?

Books » Harry Potter » **All's Well That Ends Well**

Author: Rainbowserpent

1. Chapter 1:The Insanity of A Dumbledore2. Chapter 2: A SEVERE Excess of Phlegm3. Chapter 3: A Time of Changes4. Chapter 4: Changes of An Unlikely Manner5. Chapter 5: A Fear of Loneliness6. Chapter 6: The Secrets of Severus Snape7. Chapter 7: Broken Windows8. Chapter 8: Sweet Mary Malone9. Chapter 9: Friend or Foe?10. Chapter 10: Sniffles and Snuffles11. Chapter 11: A Massive Mistake?12. Chapter 12: Pottermonia13. Chapter 13: Trouble in Paradise14. Chapter 14: Inevitably15. Chapter 15:House-Elves and Sherbet Lemon16. Chapter 16: Never Eat Wet Toast Syndrome17. Chapter 17: Dinner by Candlelight18. Chapter 18: The Disappearing Act19. Chapter 19: Fear20. Chapter 20: Love Undone21. Dear Readers (A Notice)

Rated: T - English - Humor/Romance - Reviews: 78 - Published: 08-18-12 - Updated: 02-04-13

id:8441304

Chapter 11

A Massive Mistake?

'And go back to your common rooms immediately!' said Lily sternly, sending the two giggling third years fleeing from the deserted classroom, where they had been trying to set up a bucket of_Stainley's Irremovable Paint_ so it would levitate above the door, then drop onto the teacher's head as they walked in.

Lily emptied the bucket with a wave of her wand, and then walked back out to the corridor, speckled with moonlight, to continue her patrol.

Lily sighed. Everything had seemed to go downhill since the Hogsmeade weekend. There had been mountains of homework waiting for her as she arrived, and now, half-way through the next week, it was starting to look like there would be more homework than the Seventh Years could even imagine. Care of Magical Creatures, usually the highlight of the week, had been disastrous, to say the least. First, she had been paired with none other than the infamous Severus Snape from Slytherin's select group of Death-Eaters-in-training.

The Slytherins had jeered and laughed, 'Snape's got the _mudblood_! Teach her the importance of pure blood, Severus!' They had begun to tear out the pages of their textbooks to scrunch up and throw at Lily. She had seen James's fists clench, and his jaw work furiously, and had heard him mutter to Sirius, 'If I hadn't sworn to behave…'

But Lily wouldn't take it. She didn't need James to protect her-what made him think she needed protecting?

'Stop that right now,' she said coolly, pulling out her wand, 'and no-one gets hurt.'

The Slytherins howled with laughter and began throwing their entire textbooks at her. 'The mudblood has a wand! D'you know how to use that thing sweetie, or should I show you?' they mocked.

'Please don't Lily,' she had heard Severus whisper beside her as her eyebrows sank lower and lower down her face, 'they'll _kill _you!'

Just then, a copy of _The Advanced Magical Creature Keeper's Guide to Magical Creatures _came sailing through the air and hit her right in the stomach. Severus had groaned, as Lily, gasping for breath, had found her face contorting in rage. She had seen red, and before James (who had yelled out angrily) could charge at them, and before the Death-Eaters-to-be had any idea what was going on, they were lying on the ground in a sticky mess of tentacles, boils, dragon-pox sores, bogeys and small vampire bats with wickedly sharp teeth.

The Gryffindors had roared with laughter, and James had looked intensely relieved, but none had laughed harder or looked so elated as Mirabelle, who had been complaining about the bullies in her House since fourth year.

'Lily…' Severus had begun.

'D'you want me to do you too?' Lily had said sharply, wand raised threateningly.

'No-I…' Severus had edged away to the trestle table he and Lily had been assigned, on the very edge of the Forbidden Forest.

They had worked in silence, Lily chopping the water weeds and raw meat they had to slice, with such ferocity it harboured no conversation.

She had seen James glance over at them a few times, and finally, after Sirius had whispered something to him, he came over and said, 'How are you guys going?'

Lily opened her mouth to reply, which had seemed to irk Severus, who had stopped chopping and said harshly, 'What do you want?'

'Just wanted to check up on you guys.'

'Could you be any more obvious?' Severus had said bitterly, resuming his chopping.

'That's a bit rich,' James had said, 'coming from you.'

'Can we just NOT have this conversation now, you two?' Lily had said grumpily, slicing the head off a caterpillar with relish.

This had kept James to his table and Severus quiet until it had come to actually feeding the supplies to the water kelpie. Professor Dulse had said it had been found in a village well, and it was to be fed three times a day, as water kelpies are usually extremely violent, and preferred the taste of human flesh. All said with an extremely cheery face, a pair of dragon-hide gloves held out for the first person to commence the water kelpie's feeding programme.

Lily had accepted the gloves, and climbed the ladder leading up to the large cube of water, suspended in midair by nothing but Professor Dulse's wand, which seemed a pretty small a feeble stick of wood to Lily as she had remembered her muggle schooling on the laws of physics.

Lily had reached her hand out to drop the food into the clear blue water, within the reach of the bulrush-maned water horse, when Severus cried 'Don't do it Lily! It's dangerous!'

His Slytherin friends had looked at him, utterly bewildered.

'What are you implying?' said Lily angrily, 'that I can't deal with danger?'

'No-I…you can't it's too-'

'She's in Gryffindor,' James had said, 'You're brave enough to handle a little pony in a paddling pool, aren't you Evans?'

'Of course I-' Lily had suddenly let out an ear-piercing scream as the water kelpie grabbed her unattended arm and attempted to drag her underneath the surface to a watery grave.

'Lily!' James and Severus had cried at once, and had dived for her, each grabbing one of her feet and pulling her out of the water, gasping and sopping wet, all falling on top of each other in a heap.

'Well _that's_ not something you see every day,' Sirius had said.

'And not something you _should_ see every day,' said Remus as the three scrabbled around, James and Severus glaring jealously at each other, 'they look like they're going to rip each other to pieces.'

'Who?' Peter had asked, confused, 'James and Snape?'

'Snape and James will try to kill each other, and Lily will be trying to kill both of them for thinking she can't handle herself…I thought James knew her better than that.'

Even now, Lily was still confused by her emotions over this new development (was it _nice_ that James cared or not if she got drowned? Severus, however, was a different matter. He had called her a mudblood two years ago, and Lily had a memory like an elephant when it came to people that insulted her), found herself wandering aimlessly down a corridor she had never seen before.

It was a long stone corridor, empty except for a large tapestry, showing a wizard wearing an eccentric hat and a confused, yet determined expression. He seemed to be instructing the small crowd of trolls before him, all dressed in tutus, attempting to perform the ballet recitals, to comic effects. As she watched, two of the trolls seized their clubs and pirouetted over to Barnabus the Barmy (for Lily now knew this to be the name of the eccentric wizard, as she had heard some fifth years talk about him as 'that loopy Barnabus the Barmy guy-yeah…tried to train _trolls_ to do ballet!), and whack him over the head, only to have him leap up and start yelling at them.

Smiling to herself, Lily walked along to a blank stretch of wall opposite the tapestry. There was something special about this corridor wall….

As soon as her fingers touched its rough, uneven surface, she felt a tingling through her veins that she knew to be magic. Pressing her hands closer to the smooth yet calloused stone, she felt the thrill of magic shiver down her spine.

Pondering what it could be, and wondering how she would find her way, Lily began to walk back along the corridor, then she stopped, turned on her heel and continued in the other direction, sure it would have to lead to something.

Just before she left the sphere of magic, Lily felt a sudden pulling, something causing her to walk back around the other way, a thought appearing in her mind like a small white pebble dropping into a clear pond, and settling, already formed.

Suddenly, a bright red door materialised on the empty wall.

Curious, Lily opened it and stepped through.

She found herself in a circular room, completely empty, except for twenty-five multi-coloured doors, each with different doorhandles. Looking behind her, she saw the red door disappear.

Cautiously, Lily walked over to a large door with a large square silver handle, a painting of a mountain range upon its surface in rough, uneven oil paints.

Turning the silver handle, Lily found herself staring into a cupboard full of shelves and shelves of toys.

Confused, Lily closed the door with a click. All of a sudden, there was a scraping of stone on stone and the entire circular room began to move.

Lily regaining her balance as it ground to a halt, looked around. Beneath her feet she saw words engraved onto the floor of the circular room.

'Twenty-one our number is,

Twenty-one strange doors.

Find the right one in our midst

Our world returns to yours.'

Confused-_our world returns to yours?_ Lily ran to the mountain range door and opened it. As the door swung open, all Lily's suspicions were confirmed. She was now looking into a large library full of books and sunlight. But it definitely wasn't the Hogwarts library, and seemed to have no way out.

Angry with herself, Lily stamped her foot in frustration and slammed the door. How _could _she be so stupid as to get herself locked into a room full of doors that changed location each time you shut them. There must be a way out. From the way the riddle went, it seemed as if the right door would move around the castle, appearing a corridor or a classroom...but that must change from First Floor to Third Floor to Seventh Floor every time the room rotated...maybe someone might even be able to find her, if they opened the door-for this was no ordinary magic.

She tried three more doors, revealing a dark and gloomy tunnel (which she found to lead to a dead end); a greenhouse filled with colourful plants, which waved vines and leaves around like feelers, and dripped plant juices, the whole greenhouse full of condensation and watery sunlight; and a room that seemed to fall away after the threshold, with a thin, rotting bridge stretching as far as the eye could see, above swirling clouds, though what they lead to Lily was unsure of, and was unwilling to find out.

Irritated, Lily pulled out her wand. If she could get rid of some of the actual doors, she might be able to tell which one lead back to Hogwarts, and her patrol…

'_Expulso!'_ she cried, pointing it at a cheery yellow door with a silver handle in the shape of an H. The force of her spell sent her flying backwards and crashing into another door, which, as she scrambled up, swung open. Lily, however, was too busy looking at the yellow door.

Rather than shattering into a million pieces, as was usually the result from the pressure of the exploding spell, the door was exactly as it had been, unscathed and perfect.

Lily ran frantically around the circle, wrenching doors open one at a time. Scenes of a living room, aquarium, pine forest, art gallery, kitchen, a room full of mirrors, a lab of exploding and bubbling experiments, a room full of strangely-shaped instruments, a hall full of paintings, a cupboard containing knitting needles flashing to and fro knitting strange garments, a torture chamber, a high-ceilinged white room filled with multi-coloured bubbles that were seemingly unable to be popped (or, apparently, exploded), a cellar full of bottles and jars of sinister liquids, and a strange room full of pictures and images, whizzing around like frantic bees.

The possibility that she would ever find her way out of there was starting to trickle away, and as Lily glanced at her watch, and saw she had been gone from her post from an entire hour, she slumped against a door and put her head in her hands. What was she going to do? What would she eat? Would she ever get out? A single tear slipped down her cheek. And because no-one was there to see, Lily Evans, ever-strong, never-worried, always unabashed, broke down and cried.

She cried out all the bitterness of her sister, and the new boyfriend Petunia had boasted of, a 'proper man' called Vernon Dursley, who would never marry Petunia if he knew the truth, and it was all Lily's fault. She cried out the inside hurt that still lingered from years ago, that fateful day when Severus had called her _mudblood_, and had ruined their friendship forever. Though she had hated him with every fibre of her being for saying that since, and her friends had questioned her about _why _she was friends with one of the Slytherin Death-Eater-try hards, he had been a good friend, and with _his_ parents, it seemed he needed her. The tears fell faster as she remembered the conversations with her parents in the holidays, that they were worried she 'wasn't getting a proper education', that Petunia had told them at Lily's school she did not learn history, or geography or mathematics or logic, and that Lily herself had complained about it claiming that she felt her mind was going to waste. And her parents had believed Petunia. Petunia, who had been so jealous of Lily's magic when she had come home, happy and excited from school, and shown her a few spells (which had led to a warning from the Ministry of Magic, but Lily had said she didn't care and would give anything for Petunia to be able to come to Hogwarts too). And now Petunia pretended Lily was insane, and stupid. What happened to their friendship? They were so close before she had gotten the letter…

She was sobbing, her hair plastered to her cheeks, vision blurry…

'Lily?'

With a gasp, Lily's head shot up. Standing up, she quickly wiped her wet cheeks, brushed back her hair and blinked her eyes to clear them from the cloudiness that prevented her from seeing…

'_James?_'

He was standing there, a door open behind him showing a corridor…a familiar corridor.

'James, don't let the door cl-!' cried Lily, but it was too late. It swung shut with a click, and the room began to rotate yet again.

'WOA!' cried James unsteadily, losing his footing and crashing into Lily.

The room stopped moving, and Lily and James untangled themselves from each other.

'What a strange room,' remarked James.

'I got in here accidentally about an hour ago,' said Lily, 'and I can't find the door out-they change see, each time a door closes and the room moves. The riddle on the floor says there's one that leads back to Hogwarts.'

James looked down at the words. 'Ah, you discovered the Room of Requirement…why would you require doors though?'

'I don't know-I walked past the wall then a thought slipped into my head…I can't remember what it was, but it certainly wasn't my own…'

'Hm…well normally you can only get into the Room when someone else is in there unless you know exactly what the person asked the Room for…this is really strange…it's like you were looking for a puzzle or something…'

'I don't know WHAT I was looking for-it wasn't my thought! I'm so confused, it was like someone took over my mind…'

'Was that why you were crying?' asked James finally.

'I…' Lily couldn't hold his gaze. His eyes were too concerned, too easy to believe when he said he wanted to help, too stunningly brown, too beautiful…hang on, _James's _eyes? Beautiful? Was she going INSANE?!

Luckily, James was now wandering around the room, inspecting the doors with interest.

'What are you-?' asked Lily, as James opened a door. She braced herself as he shut it, and the room spun around, dizzyingly fast…

He tried several more doors, and, as the last one closed and James began to open another, (the room whizzing around at a sickeningly fast pace) Lily found herself flung around the room, against a different door, which unlatched as she bumped into it. Lily and James looked at each other, each with a hand on a different, open door.

'But this means-'

'We can open them all!' cried Lily, excited, 'if we open them all, without one of them closing…'

'We'll find the right door!'

'Okay, um, just open as many as you can without letting any close, because they all move around and swap places,' said Lily.

They rushed around the room, flinging doors open. But as soon as the door was opened, it swung shut again with an ominous_ creak_..._click!_ and the room would rotate again.

'We need to hold them open,' said James.

They quickly reopened some of the doors, holding as many as possible open at once. One of Lily's doors came dangerously close to closing, but she managed to catch it just before it clicked shut.

Holding her five doors open, Lily doing the splits with one leg to keep two of them open, and holding three in her hands. She couldn't see exactly what James was doing, but she knew it would be physically impossible for them to keep all twenty-one of the doors open.

'James?' she asked, gasping as the door handle pinched her finger.

'Yeah?' came an exhausted voice.

'How many doors are you holding open?'

'Five.'

'That means we've got ten between us…but there were _twenty_-_one_! We'd need to hold eleven more open…it's impossible. UGH! Why didn't I do more Yoga? I'd be way more flexible... HOW are we going to get out of here?' Lily let go of the doors all at the same time and wobbled unstably to sit in the middle of the room.

'Lily what're you-don't let g-!' cried James, who was suddenly flung across the room as it rotated like a spinning top.

He landed, sprawled next to Lily's feet.

'How're we ever going to get out _now_?' asked James irritably.

'We're NOT!' cried Lily, cross-legged on the floor, 'don't you see James? We can hold those doors open until the end of time, but it won't make the others stay open. We can't do anything: we're stuck here. Forever.'

James righted himself and sat with his back resting against hers.

Lily felt a thrill run down her spine, but it felt strange and disconnected, as she was too busy worrying about the trouble at hand.

'What is this 'Room of Receiving' or whatever it was anyway?' she asked, leaning her head back.

'This,' said James, also leaning his head back so they rested on each other, supporting each other and making sure the other didn't fall over, 'is the Room of Requirement. Haven't you ever heard of it? It's the "come and go room". It transforms into anything you want when you pace in front of the entrance wall three times, thinking of the one thing you want it to turn into.'

'Oh,' said Lily. _What had __she__ been thinking of?_

'But sometimes you can be rescued by someone…once Sirius locked me in here when it was transformed into a glasshouse full of weird plants that tried to eat me alive.'

'Did you get out? Were you okay?'

'Yeah…he came back for me after a few hours, good old Padfoot...but then, I guess he knew exactly which room he'd put me in…'

'Doesn't sound very good to me, locking your best friend in a room full of poisonous and dangerous plants…all the more reason to prank him with the excuse that he's upset Mary...I sincerely hope he won't but...'

'You're going to prank him…on behalf of me? For something that happened YEARS ago?' James sounded surprised.

'Of course I am, you're my friend,' said Lily fiercely, wriggling at the word "friend". It left no room for change or development…no possibility of something more… Lily tried to push that thought aside, to the back of her mind-what were these strange thoughts that kept coming over her?

James obviously shared her discomfort, and there was a pause.

'Well you're my friend too, and I'd do anything for you.'

Lily smiled…perhaps she _could_ deal with just being friends.

'So, this room, it could turn into anything?' she said after a while.

'Anything,' said James, 'You could use it as a place to hide forbidden items, a place to hide, a place to escape, a storehouse, anything really…even to do extra revision and homework.'

'Oh, so I could turn it into a Potions lab? Provided I could get _out_…'

'Yeah, 'course you could, though I'm surprised you'd need it: you're a brilliant potion-maker.'

'Even more so when you've frightened Snape off,' said Lily. There was a silence in which everything seemed to freeze.

'How did you know?' asked James softly.

'I-overheard you. I-I didn't mean to, I needed to go back and get my quill-it was an accident...I'm sorry!'

'Don't be sorry,' he said firmly, 'and I'm sorry I interfered…I just know you love Potions, and Snivellus isn't better than you because of skill-he's borrowing Slug's old Potion notes…I didn't think it was fair. I just-wanted you to be happy,' his voice faltered.

Lily's heart was beating very fast, and she felt something flutter in her stomach. _He wants me to be happy! He actually cares…_

'Thanks James,' she said, trying to keep her voice measured, 'you don't know what that means to me.' There was a pause, 'but are _you_ happy?'

'Me?' asked James, surprised, 'why wouldn't I be happy?'

'I-know about your dad,' she stuttered, trying to say it quickly, as if that would cause him minimum pain.

He didn't question how she knew this. He didn't say anything. But Lily felt his body tense.

'I'm really sorry that happened to you James,' she said softly, 'I truly am.'

She felt him begin to shake, and she reached her hand behind her, and caught his, holding it gently.

'It's unfair that these things have to happen,' she said, 'but I'm sure he's smiling down on you every day, with all his love.'

She heard James sniff. 'S-sorry,' he said in a choked voice, 'I-I know guys aren't meant to cry…'

'To hell with that!' said Lily fiercely, 'that's just a stupid thing that people say to make out that guys aren't human and don't have feelings: that's why so many people are depressed, because they won't cry, and won't show their feelings. Don't hold them inside James-once you cry you feel so much better, and you can move on.'

'I didn't cry at the funeral,' he said thickly, and she heard him sob, 'people must've thought I didn't care…'

'But you _do_ care,' said Lily, 'that's the point-your dad knows that, and so does your mum if she's got half a brain. And I'm sure she does,' Lily added kindly. 'It's okay. These things happen, and you just need good friends to help you through. In fact I'd give you a hug if I wasn't worried I'd break the rules of your manly honour or something…'

'Honour?' choked James, trying not to laugh, 'What honour?'

He sounded so sad, so lonely. Lily had never heard James upset before, and as she moved around to see him, cross legged, tears pouring down his face, her whole heart went out to him.

She pulled him into a bear-hug, and he leaned on her shoulder, shaking and crying. Something seemed to tell Lily he hadn't talked with anyone about this. Not even with Sirius-not properly anyway. There were some things other boys just didn't understand, no matter how kind and good a friend they were. Lily could sense that James hadn't showed his feelings at all, and had probably spent hours locked up in his room, surrounded by the silent grief. She gave him a squeeze. He was so strong, yet such an idiot at the same time, to bottle the sadness up like that.

They sat there for a while, Lily hugging him tightly, James just sitting there numbly, absorbing the shock, and the smell of her hair, and thinking of all the times he had complained to his father about how Lily Evans didn't love him…maybe his old dad was smiling down on him now, chuckling at how Lily was hugging him in his hour of need…Lily, who apparently hated him…Lily who, at that very moment was thinking smugly 'take THAT Vernon Ning-Ning-Ning Dursley! James is way cooler than you'll ever be. You've got to be extremely strong to shut your feelings off, but you have to be so much stronger to accept your fears and be able to admit them then get over them.'

She let go of James and looked into his gentle hazel eyes, shining with tears, his smooth face now dry.

He gave her a weak smile.

'I'm sorry I had to break down like that-I just, I'm sorry, I-'

Lily leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, 'Don't be sorry.'

They smiled at each other, and there was an awkward pause. Then Lily went back around to lean against his back, relying on each other again.

'So what should we do until someone rescues us?' Lily asked, hoping that they'd be rescued soon before she did something even more stupid.

'Well someone could rescue us you know. If they want to find whatever it was you wanted to find, so long as you didn't think "as long as nobody else can get in",' he laughed, '-maybe it was a door into another world you imagined, or a weird party trick room or something, or…' but as James began listing things she could have been thinking of, Lily froze, thinking. There was only one door that could save them if someone opened it in the castle. ONE DOOR. And everyone was in bed. How would they be rescued? And if it moved every time… At least James was here…

She mentally kicked herself. What was _wrong _with her? It drove her insane to think she had fallen for James Messy-Hair Potter, whom she had loathed so entirely, and now her childishness would have them both locked in here forever, with nothing but each other…_It's kind of sweet_, she thought to herself_¸ just me and James-LILY CATHERINE EVANS, GET A GRIP ON YOURSELF, AND GET IT NOW!_ She realized with a small shiver that she still had her back up against James's. She leapt up, James's torso, which had been leaning on hers, fell backwards, and he hit his head. But Lily tried not to notice, as she paced around thinking furiously.

'Ow…' muttered James.

'We need to get out of here,' she said furiously, 'and no-one's going to rescue us.'

'They could you know-'

'They won't, okay? They just won't-it's extremely improbable-we're on our own!' Lily wrenched open the door of a cupboard, and suddenly an avalanche of small wooden toys collapsed on her head.

'Lily!' cried James, 'are you okay?' he said, digging her out.

'We're never going to get out of here!' yelled Lily hysterically, 'why am I such an idiot?'

'Hey, you're not an idiot. You're the cleverest, most amazing, most beautiful person I know.' Lily looked up at him, as he extended his hand to help her up. There was a passion in his eyes, and she knew he meant it.

'Hey… wait a second,' said James, picking up one of the wooden toys, 'these aren't toys!'

'What?'

'No I mean they literally _aren't_ toys! They're doorstoppers!'

Looking down, Lily saw with a gasp, that he was right. What she had mistaken for hundreds of carefully crafted wooden toys were actually hundreds of colourful wooden doorstops. Engraved with faces and delicate swirls maybe, but most definitely doorstoppers.

She and James took one look at each other, then grabbed a handful of doorstops each and ran frantically around the room, opening doors and wedging the stops in, then rushing back for more.

Soon there was only one door left. Lily and James simultaneously grabbed the same green and brown coloured doorstop, engraved with a tree, and, together, they opened the door and wedged it in. There, where that door had been, was the second-floor corridor.

They looked at each other.

'We're…'

'SAFE!'

She stepped into the corridor.

'Oh my god! We're out!'

Relief flooded her, and all of a sudden, without thinking, or planning, Lily kissed him.

She felt as if her entire being was being filled with golden rays of buttery sunlight. Then, all of a sudden, her conscience screamed: _WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU DON'T EVEN __LIKE __JAMES POTTER! You're not ALLOWED to like James Potter-STOP STOP STOP! _She pulled away, looking embarrassed.

'I-sorry I don't know what came over me that was completely...'

And Lily ran. Down the corridor, choking back tears. She didn't see the hurt on James's face, or that he quietly stepped from the room and closed the door, then slumped against the wall that had now appeared, and buried his face in his hands. She didn't see how much she had hurt him, because it was only now starting to dawn on her what she had actually done, and the fact that she might actually, somehow, maybe...be falling in love with James Potter.

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**I know the ending's a little cheesy...I don't know! This is a really weird chapter, I didn't quite know how to get them together...but just know: THIS IS NOT THE END!**

**Review? ;)**

**Oh, and another weird, corny thing I did that you may not have picked up on, is the doorstopper that James and Lily both hold? It's brown and green-like their eyes! Yeah, pathetic, isn't it?!**


	12. Chapter 12: Pottermonia

Books » Harry Potter » **All's Well That Ends Well**

Author: Rainbowserpent

1. Chapter 1:The Insanity of A Dumbledore2. Chapter 2: A SEVERE Excess of Phlegm3. Chapter 3: A Time of Changes4. Chapter 4: Changes of An Unlikely Manner5. Chapter 5: A Fear of Loneliness6. Chapter 6: The Secrets of Severus Snape7. Chapter 7: Broken Windows8. Chapter 8: Sweet Mary Malone9. Chapter 9: Friend or Foe?10. Chapter 10: Sniffles and Snuffles11. Chapter 11: A Massive Mistake?12. Chapter 12: Pottermonia13. Chapter 13: Trouble in Paradise14. Chapter 14: Inevitably15. Chapter 15:House-Elves and Sherbet Lemon16. Chapter 16: Never Eat Wet Toast Syndrome17. Chapter 17: Dinner by Candlelight18. Chapter 18: The Disappearing Act19. Chapter 19: Fear20. Chapter 20: Love Undone21. Dear Readers (A Notice)

Rated: T - English - Humor/Romance - Reviews: 78 - Published: 08-18-12 - Updated: 02-04-13

id:8441304

**This chapter is kind of strange...I've written it and rewritten it, and edited and cut and redone it so many times...there seem to be a few people who want to read on, so I hope this isn't a disappointment! I think it's all a bit swift...if it's too off-key, please review and I'll change it accordingly. Thanks everyone!**

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Chapter 12

Pottermonia: _The Dreaded Kissing Disease_

'Lily, are you okay?' Jenny's voice came as though through a long tunnel.

'Huh?' mumbled Lily, in a sleepy daze, trying to get rid of the gumminess in her eyes, blink away the blurriness, trying desperately to sit up, only to fall down onto her pillows again.

'We saw you hadn't gone down early like normal,' said Mary's voice, somewhere to her right. Lily jerked herself around, desperate to see Mary.

'Are you sure you're alright?' came Jenny's voice again, 'you look quite sick…'

Lily hiccupped. Why did she feel so terrible? What had happened? There was something about last night that seemed to have alarm bells screaming for her…

Lily felt her face drain of all colour. _Oh yeah, that was it. You kissed James Potter_. _OH MY GOD!_

Suddenly Lily found herself leaning over the side of her bed and being violently ill, all over Mary's feet from the sound of disgust her friend made.

'LILY!'

Lily's eyes flew open. 'S-sorry Mary,' she trembled, wiping her mouth, 'I dunno what…I feel really…I think I have…Pottermonia.'

'You think you have _what?_' asked Mary and Jenny in unison.

'P-pott'rmonia…' Lily mumbled, but her words sounded oddly slurred, and she longed to go back to sleep and awake to find last night all a bad dream…

'I think she said Pneumonia.'

'Is that serious?'

'It's more serious the younger you are-it's almost fatal to newborns, and really bad in eight-year olds and a bit older…elderly people die of it too…but I think it would be serious enough in Lily's case.'

'Serious enough to addle her brain? I could've sworn for a moment… I could've sworn she said-'

'Yeah, _Potter_monia.'

They both laughed, and Lily felt herself growing faint.

'Do you need to go to the Hospital Wing?' asked Jenny suddenly, 'Lily, you're looking terribly pale…'

'N-no,' said Lily, 'I just need to rest…'

'I'll come and check on you at lunch time. If you're no better then, I'm taking you to the Hospital Wing, whether you like it or not,' said Jenny firmly.

Lily didn't hear them leave. She slipped off into an uneasy sleep. She was conscious of herself tossing and turning, and she was having a terrible nightmare.

She was standing in a strange room, full of sunlight and covered with plants. She looked around. It was stiflingly hot, and there was the sound of water rushing, somewhere nearby…she needed that water, she needed to reach it-it might be her only hope. Plunging into the dense vegetation, Lily had her face stung by the leaves, suffocating her, covering her head, she couldn't breath-

She burst into a clearing, and it was like the stifling hood had been lifted, and she could breathe again.

She looked around, and all of a sudden, James came into her line of vision.

'G-go away!' she stuttered.

He approached her steadily, coming closer and closer, Lily turning to run-he grabbed her by the waist and held her, making it impossible for her to move.

'You're standing under a mistletoe tree Lily,' he said.

Lily was about to open her mouth to tell her there was no such thing as a mistletoe tree: that it was a leech-like weed that attached itself to other plants, when he leaned forward kissed her.

And she was kissing him passionately back, and all of a sudden thousands of birds of paradise flew out of the strange plants, singing a strange tune that sounded oddly like 'Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, _don't, don't_!' and all of a sudden James had her chained to a lichen-covered wall, and he was telling her, 'You're mine Lily Evans, and you'll never escape-I'll keep you here forever!'

As his maniacal laughter reverberated around the inside of her skull, Lily found herself awake, drenched in sweat, screaming as loudly as she ever had in her life.

She continued to scream, and was shaking and panting, when she suddenly slumped back onto her pillows. Just before she lost consciousness, she heard Jenny's worried voice.

'Professor, we need to take her up to the Hospital Wing!'

'_Locomotor Evans_,' came Professor McGonagall's voice, 'quick _quick_, get out of my way please, Miss Evans is extremely ill. What did you say she said this morning?' she queried.

'That she had-' Lily could almost see Jenny and Mary share a strange look before saying, 'Pottermonia.'

As a small crowd around Lily began to laugh at her, everything started to go black…

Lily looked up. _Was there a face directly above hers, strangely distorted as her vision swam alarmingly? A face…with untidy black hair, brown eyes and a worried expression?_ Smiling, she was leaning forward to kiss him…

Lily suddenly awoke with a gasp, her eyes snapping open. The sunny Hospital Wing was completely deserted. With a sigh of relief, Lily leaned over to her bedside table, only to scream, and withdraw her hand quickly.

There, beside her bed, was a bizarre little creature with large, thin ears, a mushroom-like button nose, and large, shining brown eyes. Remembering back to their History of Magic classes, Lily thought of a particularly boring lecture she'd got the general gist of about House Elves, and, judging by the distinctive behaviour and appearance of this strange _thing_, she was pretty sure this was a House Elf.

'M-Mistress Lily?' it said shyly.

'How do you know my name?' Lily asked suspiciously, 'and what are you doing here? How did you get into the castle?'

'We is all already here, Miss,' said the Elf, 'you is not seeing us as we is good House Elves-nobody knows how the beds be warm but we's…we's warm dem Mistress Lily and we's cook too for Master Dumbledore, who is good and kind and-'

Lily heard the click of a lock as Madam Pomfrey bustled in from her office. Lily quickly shoved the House Elf under her bed whispering '_Sssh!'_

'Ah, awake then are you Evans?' said Madam Pomfrey, beginning to examine her, 'Are you feeling any better?'

'I-think I have a fever or something…and a headache, like I've got all these thoughts whizzing around my brain-'

'Hm, that sounds like shellshock from too much Quidditch collisions…I've had a few cases in here already-but you don't play Quidditch do you dear?' said Madam Pomfrey.

'No,' said Lily.

'And a good thing too,' clucked the matron, coming dangerously close to stepping on the House Elf's ear, poking out from under the bed, 'an extremely violent game, I've always said it…'

'Uh-Madam Pomfrey, I actually feel quite sick,' said Lily, aware of the impatient fidgeting of the Elf underneath her bed.

'Are you alright dear? Would you like a Nausea Draught? That should stop you feeling ill…'

'No I-I'd just like maybe a bit more sleep? Maybe we could get the diagnosis later… ? I'm just quite tired…'

Madam Pomfrey looked a little put out, but agreed to come back later, and went back to her office (Lily feigning sleep until the door was closed).

'I is sorry to be disturbing Mistress Lily when she is ill,' said the House Elf, slinking out from under the bed.

'That's alright… what did you say your name was again?'

'Cabbage, Miss,' said the Elf.

'Well _Cabbage_, what are you doing here?' Lily took a sip of water from the glass on her bedside table.

'Cabbage has been sent, Miss, sent by Master Potter.' Lily spat out half her water in a spray that reached past the end of the bed, but she didn't notice. _Potter? Oh please don't tell me that's-_

'Master…James Potter, Miss?' said Cabbage, looking for recognition in her face, 'he is-he is saying youse would know him…'

'OH really, he said that did he? Well, if he thinks I'm going to go all puppy-eyed just because he told a House Elf he was my boyfriend-'

'He's said you was friends Miss,' continued Cabbage, pulling a metal tin out of her toga-like sack, 'and he's was…he's was worried, Miss, that you was ill.'

Lily accepted the box and looked down at it. It was decorated with a beautiful white lily flower and had _Honeydukes' Best Boiled Sweets,_ written underneath it. Opening the box, Lily found it full of colourful, amazing-smelling sweets. She tried a few. She had no idea what they were, she had never tasted them before, but they were good.

She spotted a note down the bottom of the box in James's untidy handwriting, _Hope you feel better soon Lily. I heard these are your favourite. Speedy recovery! Love from, James_.

Lily popped another sweet in her mouth, and realized that she felt surprised. Maybe James _did_ care about her after all..

'Lily?' came a voice through a tired haze, 'Lily, are you alright? Please…_please _wake up. I'm worried about you.' She recognised that voice. It was the voice she had heard her first day on the train…the voice she had hated so bitterly…the voice she had now come to associate with a strange fluttering feeling in her stomach, squeezing her stomach into a nervous knot and making her heart beat rather fast…the voice that she'd heard calling her name as she ran down that moonlit corridor, tears in her eyes, and regret stinging her lips…

'I-I need to go soon…I just wanted to say goodbye…Lily?'

Lily kept her eyes shut tight and hoped he would leave…if she saw his face-those eyes, the few freckles on his cheeks, that unnaturally messy hair-she might just do something stupid.

There was a small sigh, and she felt somebody bend down to kiss her cheek. Lily tried not to react, tried to keep the small smile from her face as she slipped off to sleep…

It was a Saturday, almost a week after the incident in the Room of Requirement that Lily was let out of the Hospital Wing.

'Technically, you are as fit as a fiddle my dear,' said Madam Pomfrey, fussing over folding Lily's bed sheets properly. Then she paused, 'But it's an affair of the heart,' she said solemnly (causing Lily to choke on the sweet she was nibbling on as she admired the lily on the box it had come from), 'and you may feel as horrible as anything, while not being actually ill. Take care of your heart dear,' warned the matron, 'it's the only one you've got, and heartbreak is one of the things that is hardest to cure and harder still to get over and trust again after.'

Still contemplating these words of wisdom, Lily wandered through the unnaturally quiet corridors to the Gryffindor common room.

When she finally reached the Fat Lady, fiddling around with a new hair ribbon, she muttered 'Porcupine quills,' and entered.

The room was completely deserted. Lily felt as though she was walking through a ghost town.

Feeling a little worried, Lily leapt up each stair to her dormitory, and came across all the girls that inhabited it cross-legged on their beds.

'What in the name of-?'

'Lily!' said Jenny.

'We weren't sure when you'd get out,' said Mary, looking up, hands clasped in front of her.

'I just got out today-what's going on-? hang on, why are you _praying_?'

Mary blinked. 'Haven't you heard? It's James.'

'Wh-? What about him? What's gone wrong, what is it?' Lily felt the colour drain from her face.

'They haven't told you? He's gone missing.'

'M-missing?' Lily trembled, sitting down on her bed as her legs began to shake, 'Where was he? How'd he disappear from _Hogwarts_? W-who took him? Y-You Know Who?'

'Hogwarts? What? No, didn't you know-he left last week for his Aunt's fifth wedding…apparently he came to say goodbye to you.' Lily felt a pink blush creeping across her face, 'but anyway, he's disappeared-and there was a report of another Death Eater attack, though we don't know the victim,' Mary looked grave, 'we think…we think it might be him.'

Lily felt her face drain of all colour, and with a strange shock she realized she may never see James's face again, never look into those glowing hazel eyes, see that strangely tussled hair, or hear him laughing…how she loved it when he laughed…

The girls consolingly patted her arm, and said, 'There there,' a lot, but Lily felt like a blank, staring zombie. She did not cry until everyone had left for dinner, and for the first time in years, Lily cried herself to sleep.

'Lily, are you okay?'

'Your eyes are awfully red…'

'What's the matter, can I help?'

Disembodied voices…Lily felt sick. She had just recovered from day after day after day in the Hospital Wing, to find herself with the strange echoing effect of not understanding a word people said…she longed to hear his voice. 'Lily, are you alright? Please, _please_ wake up. I'm worried about you.' She played it over and over in her mind, hoping that if she visualised him enough, he would appear before her. The thought that she may never see James again chilled her to the core. Why hadn't the world stopped? Why did it chug steadily onward, devoid of heaven's staircase-for if James was gone, how could anything be as it had? Even his friends did not look sad. Was she the only one in the whole castle who would miss James Potter? Lily's heart did a strange backflip. For now she knew, deep within her soul, that she loved him. She truly did, no matter what she had told herself…maybe for longer than she cared to admit. And all she wished for was James to be beside her, laughing and joking…she missed him with all of herself, and in her grief, she felt the most passionate love for him…not that it mattered now. He was gone. She had let him go when she still had the chance. Flittered around, making up her mind, and now it was too late. The moment was gone. She had lost her chance-and, if he loved her as much as she now knew she loved him-shattered his heart. The last time he saw her she was asleep, trying to hold her breath and appear as still and silent as possible…and now he was truly dead. With a maddening sense of de ja vu, Lily remembered the story of Romeo and Juliet…Juliet lay in a tomb, appearing dead because of an elixir she had taken so as not to be forced to marry another, then Romeo came, and, believing her to be truly dead, could not live anymore…and when Juliet awoke, and found him dead, she took her own life, and the lovers both died for each other…she had pretended to be still and silent, then, when the Death Eaters attacked, maybe James gave up the will to live? Could _she _go on without him?

The thoughts scared her. No, she was not Juliet. Though she would mourn him until her (_naturally occurring_, she told herself forcefully) dying day, and never look at another-she swore to herself there and then-she would not take her own life. Life is too precious.

It was two days after Lily's pledging of undying love to James's memory, as she headed down to the Great Hall with her friends, that suddenly Mary cried out in alarm.

'What is it Mary?' asked Lily worriedly.

'Oh my god-Jenny! Oh my god oh my god oh my god…how could we have…? _It's today!'_

'What's tod-oh my goodness!' Jenny clapped her hand to her mouth.

'What's today?' asked Lily confused. _What WERE they talking about?_

'If we hurry we can stop him-'

'But is he already here?'

'Well we've got to risk it, haven't we?'

'Sorry?' asked Lily, 'have I missed something?'

'He mightn't want to go through with it?'

'As if Jenny! We _are _still talking about the same person, of course he will!'

'Will we be fast enough?'

'If we take a shortcut…'

'Will somebody please tell me what is going _on_?' said Lily sharply.

Jenny and Mary looked at each other guiltily.

'Oh wow, I wonder what's for breakfast,' said Jenny quickly, 'hey, is that Peeves in that classroom? Quick, stop him, he'll wreck the Second Years' Charms Class-stop him Lily, he never listens to us…we'll just go down to breakfast.'

'Okay,' said Lily, turning to the classroom, 'I'll meet you down there.'

She walked into the classroom, and waited until she could hear them running down the stairs before she sprinted back out of the room and after them. _Peeves? Really? That was the oldest excuse in the book. And besides-they had heard a fifth year saying that Peeves was in the grounds, pouring water over the logs meant to make a fire for the sixth years to watch salamanders in for the days Care of Magical Creatures Class…_Lily quickly turned left, saying 'Quercetin!' to a portrait of an elaborately-dressed herbalist from the Middle ages, who swung forward, allowing Lily to dash through the narrow passage, tearing through until she came out by a portrait of the herbalist's great love, a warrior Princess who was combing her hair with a speartip, and, two at a time, she rushed down the marble staircase leading to the Entrance Hall. She was halfway down when she heard Jenny's voice cry, '_Lily!'_

'How did she get there?' gasped Mary's, behind Lily, who sped up, leaping off the last step, avoiding a small gaggle of First Years, and weaving swiftly through the crowd. _If there was something they didn't want her to know, then she was going to find out exactly what it was_…

Suddenly there was a great commotion and the Entrance Hall doors swung open.

Jenny and Mary both cried, _'NO!' _at once, and leapt down the stairs, scrambling to reach the doors, but Lily only had eyes for the person standing framed in the morning sunshine.

'_JAMES!_' She screamed, and rushed forward, flinging her arms around him and kissing him, hoping against hope it wasn't just a dream.

Behind her she heard an all familiar voice gasp, and say 'No way! Evans?'

Pulling away from James, who looked shocked and a little star-struck, Lily turned around to see Sirius, mouth hanging open, Remus and Peter beside him, looking equally surprised.

'You?' asked Sirius. 'Snogging? In public?'

Lily blushed, 'I-he-I thought he was dead!'

There was a stunned silence from Sirius, Peter, Remus and James. Lily glanced at each of them, 'Didn't you guys hear…?'

Just then, puffing and panting, Mary and Jenny disentangled themselves from the large group of Ravenclaws that had been in their way.

'James, if she says something about Death Eater-'

Mary stopped, mid-sentence, seeing Lily's face.

'What,' said Lily furiously, 'is going on?'

'I'd quite like to know that myself,' said James, looking disbelieving, yet a joyous smile was spreading across his face.'

'I-well-we…it was Mary's idea!' said Jenny, distraught.

'Fine then,' said Mary, stepping forward, 'We thought-' Jenny coughed loudly, 'fine, _I _thought that you and James really sort of, well, needed to get together, so I made up some story about how he was attacked by Death Eaters and most probably dead, to see if you'd be sad-'cause I wasn't sure if you really liked him or not.'

Lily's heart sank. It was all a trick. All that worry, those sleepless nights and pledges…

'Was she sad?' squeaked Peter shyly.

'Have you been walking around with your eyes shut?' snapped Mary, 'of course, she was totally miserable…she sleeptalked for nights and she was never smiling…'

Lily blushed. What had she said in her sleep? Oh god, oh god, oh god, _please don't say anything Mary…_

'I told her to stop when you looked so ruined Lily,' said Jenny sadly, 'please don't be angry with us…'

'I-' Lily considered yelling at them, and telling them off for making a fool of her…but she had changed. And in a way, she felt thankful to Mary, because now she knew exactly where she stood with James.

'This is going to sound strange, but thanks,' said Lily, 'my god James, I'm just so glad you're alive!'

James smiled, 'So am I.'

'I'm sorry Lily,' said Mary, embarrassedly, 'I didn't know you'd be so worried…I must have ruined your life for a while by telling you that, and getting the other girls to play along-unfortunately I didn't get to tell those idiots,' she glared at the Marauders, 'and their waltzing around and looking far too happy can't have made you feel any better.'

'Okay, I forgive you-but only if you walk round the lake with me and tell me everything…why on earth you thought you needed to do that, and swear you won't do it again. You too Jenny.'

'It's a deal,' Mary said, and both girls pushed past James.

'Aren't you going too Lily?' asked Remus, confused.

'I have just one more thing…' said Lily, a mischievous smile playing on her face, 'James, will you go out with me?'

James's eyes widened, eyebrows shot up his face, and his mouth opened and closed like a fish.

'I'll take that as a yes?' a smile spread across James's face, 'good,' she said, 'I'll see you at breakfast then,' she marched out onto the lawns, linking arms with Mary and Jenny.

James watched her all the way, her light red hair shining in the sun, her robes flying around her…

'Wow mate,' came Sirius's voice from a long way off, 'Finally!'

'Wow,' James muttered, still staring out to the grounds, 'I need to go to Aunt Jessabell's weddings more often.'

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**Thanks for reading! Constructive criticism/aka reviews?**


	13. Chapter 13: Trouble in Paradise

Books » Harry Potter » **All's Well That Ends Well**

Author: Rainbowserpent

1. Chapter 1:The Insanity of A Dumbledore2. Chapter 2: A SEVERE Excess of Phlegm3. Chapter 3: A Time of Changes4. Chapter 4: Changes of An Unlikely Manner5. Chapter 5: A Fear of Loneliness6. Chapter 6: The Secrets of Severus Snape7. Chapter 7: Broken Windows8. Chapter 8: Sweet Mary Malone9. Chapter 9: Friend or Foe?10. Chapter 10: Sniffles and Snuffles11. Chapter 11: A Massive Mistake?12. Chapter 12: Pottermonia13. Chapter 13: Trouble in Paradise14. Chapter 14: Inevitably15. Chapter 15:House-Elves and Sherbet Lemon16. Chapter 16: Never Eat Wet Toast Syndrome17. Chapter 17: Dinner by Candlelight18. Chapter 18: The Disappearing Act19. Chapter 19: Fear20. Chapter 20: Love Undone21. Dear Readers (A Notice)

Rated: T - English - Humor/Romance - Reviews: 78 - Published: 08-18-12 - Updated: 02-04-13

id:8441304

Chapter 12

_Trouble in Paradise_

The world had turned upside-down. Lily felt as though she would explode with happiness, now that she could accept that she truly did like James Potter, and as she discovered more about him, and how much he cared for her, the more she came to like him.

The entire school seemed to be buzzing with the news that Lily Evans, Head Girl and former Prefect, had finally consented to go out with James Potter, the trouble maker and now Head Boy who she had been refusing to go out with since fifth year when he began to ask her.

They spent many happy hours around the lake, sitting in the golden sunshine, enjoying each other's company, and trying to ignore the onlookers who were snickering and pointing, poised, ready to pass on the whisper of what the most-talked of 'celebrity' couple of Hogwarts had done now.

Half of Lily found this extremely annoying, and yet the other half was unbelievably thankful, as the dozens of spectators seemed to eliminate the trouble of her doing something stupid, and spur-of-the-moment. She just went…different when she was around James-her sensibility left her, and it scared her. She had no idea what might happen if she fully succumbed to her feelings for James. It all seemed irrational and too risky…yet beautiful and dizzyingly wonderful, carrying her up to the highest heights of happiness…but then again, she reminded herself, that was exactly what love was.

Lily smiled across at James, lying sprawled on the grass beneath their favourite beech tree, gazing into the leafy canopy above. 'Shouldn't you be doing that Charms homework by the way?' she said, half-heartedly scolding. She looked around, and realized that there was nobody else out in the grounds, which made her heart beat rather quickly and her skin break out in goose-bumps. She nervously shifted away from James, knowing she had to hold back and restrain herself when there weren't spectators as an excuse. James voice cut through her thoughts, reminding her that he was still actually there.

'No James, I'm not doing your Charms homework.'

'Damn it.' They sat in silence for a while.

'The N.E.W.T's are soon…' she said 'what'll happen if we don't pass d'you think?'

'I dunno…we get thrown into the streets as humble sellers of weird things in Diagon Alley-actually my mum knows a witch who failed her O.W.L's and her N.E.W.T's so now she's forced to wander around Knockturn Alley selling human toenails, hoping someone'll actually _buy_ the horrible things…'

'Ew! Ew, ew, _ew _James, that's DISGUSTING! But seriously what will happen?'

'Well, it depends…what did you get for your O.W.L's?'

'Um…I got an… 'O' for Transfiguration, 'A' in Defence Against the Dark Arts, 'D' for Divination 'cos I sort of fell asleep in the examination-' James snorted, 'Well come on! Professor Veda always has that weird perfume, and the crystal ball was…foggy. Oh shut up! Anyway, um, let's see…, History of Magic an 'A' and Potions I got an 'O'... can't remember the rest.'

'Wow,' said James, 'those're really good marks Lily!'

'Don't sound so surprised, I am an utterly brilliant pupil and I have a brain the size of a planet!' giggled Lily.

'Yes O mighty Queen of all Intellect! May us humble mortals with brains the size of freeze-dried peas be blessed by your presence.'

'Shut up James,' said Lily.

'Okay there Saturn, keep your rings on!'

'So what did YOU get, mister freeze-dried pea-brain?'

'Well you'll have to forgive me miss, for being such a Neanderthal- I, unlike Her Most Gracious Majesty Lily, don't remember all my marks, so you won't be able to scoff at how badly I did.'

'Oh really?' said Lily, mouth twisting into an evil grin, 'you so sure about that? _Accio O.W.L records book!' _cried Lily, wand aloft.

One of the highest windows of the castle smashed, and a large leather-bound book came zooming towards them... Lily looked back at James's horrified face with a self-satisfied smirk.

The book landed with a small 'Thwump!' in her lap, and she flicked through.

'Hm, let's see, James Potter...ah, here we are. You got an 'E' in Astronomy…Care of Magical Creatures-E, Charms-E, Defence Against the Dark Arts-O, Divination-_T_-?' ('Okay, well I kinda sorta a little bit…told Professor Veda she was a batty old hag and refused to do the rest of the examination?' Lily glared at him sternly, 'what? This was fifth year-I was a young and stupid grimy old toerag, you know that!') 'Herbology-A, History of Magic-A, Potions-A, Transfiguration-E. Wow they're really good results James,' said Lily handing him the book.

'You're just saying that,' he said sulkily, 'I stuffed up really…I can't believe it-if I'd had half a brain then I could have got some more decent marks, but I was a stupid, arrogant little-'

'Don't be so hard on yourself James! And plus, if you got marks like that when you were stuffing around, then you can definitely get even better marks now that you've, you know, pulled your head in.'

James smiled at her sideways, 'Um, thanks I think…'

'You'll be fine. I'll be fine…' Lily clasped her hands together and wrapped them around her knees, rocking back and forward, 'I'm sure we'll all be fine.'

'In terms of exams, yes,' said James, 'but I don't think Remus will be, in other respects…'

'Oh? How do you mean? Has he been finding it hard with his…' Lily stopped herself saying "Time of Month" for the sake of Remus's pride, 'um, moon-related issues?'

'That's a very specific codename. I just call it his furry little problem.'

'Sounds like an ill-behaved Chihuahua!'

'That's the point. No, I don't think it's that, he's learned to live with it. I mean the problem of him being lonely.'

'Lonely?' asked Lily, 'he's got you Marauders hasn't he?'

'Yeah, he'll always have us,' said James (Lily smiled. How nice it was for these boys, to be able to always unquestionably have each other…it made her think of how fickle some girls could be, 'I'm your best friend, now I'm someone else's,' 'I like you today, but I might not tomorrow.' Boys' lives were so much simpler…why couldn't she have been born a boy?!), 'but he's really shy and reserved, and he's been very distant and sad lately, and I think he needs some different company.'

'Ah, so you mean a-'

'A girlfriend, his sweet lady, the Juliet to his Romeo!'

'There there, don't go overboard my little matchmaker-Romeo and Juliet both die in the end!'

'Fine then, the Anne Boleyn to his King Henry the Eighth-'

'You did _not _just say that James! Remus would never have someone, least of all his wife, executed!But...Okay, you think Remus _wants_ a girlfriend?'

'More like desperately needs one. Or just a friend-girl! Someone to _talk_ to when we're busy…at the moment he just goes to the library and talks to the books. Seriously, he doesn't spend lunch break or the time after lessons with us anymore, he keeps saying he needs to go to the library…I think he sits up there alone feeling sorry for himself-it's really unhealthy. He's fading away, I swear.'

'Alright then let's go to the library!' she said, quickly Banishing the records book.

'You bet,' said James, helping her up.

Lily smiled, then said grandly, pointing her finger toward the castle, 'Onward and upward, to the place of many books!'

'_Duck!' _hissed James, and, in one fluid, simultaneous movement, the couple quickly ducked back below a desk.

'He almost saw us!' whispered Lily.

'Just, sshhssh, hang on,' muttered James, 'Okay, so I'll stay here, you go and talk to Remus, okay?'

'But-why me?'

'You distract Remus so he doesn't see me, and I go see if I can find him a girlfriend…or friend girl, or whatever the you call them.'

'A female companion?'

'That'll do. So we're all good?' He looked at Lily, biting her lip and looking doubtful, 'what is it?'

'Well, it seems…a bit, well, rude, doesn't it? Finding a friend for him? I mean, really, is it any of our business?'

'Lily, he REALLY needs our help! He doesn't talk much anymore, and he spends every waking hour in the library, probably sitting alone and just reading. I have nothing against books,' he added hastily, 'but really, you have to have SOME human friends, SOME social interaction, or you go stark raving mad! D'you really think that would suit Remus? Come on, if he hasn't found some other friends by Seventh Year, I don't think he ever will, so we need to help him, agreed?'

'Well…'

'Do you want to be partly responsible for letting Remus waste away into being a complete loner? Come on Lily, _please_,' James's eyes widened, and for a moment Lily thought those magnificent hazel orbs would engulf her, swallowing her up into their beautiful brown depths. 'Are you with me, or against me?'

Lily looked at James, her boyfriend (it seemed so weird to call him that). He was so happy when they spent time together and laughed and joked…surely Remus, who had always been so kind and sweet, deserved that too?

'I'm with you.'

James smiled, 'Ready?'

'As I'll ever be, I guess.'

'You'll be great, just talk about school, the weather, something…just be diplomatic, okay?'

'School, weather, something-Quidditch? Diplomatic, got it.'

'Now go,' said James, giving her a gentle push as she stood up.

Lily stumbled from behind the desk, then, she straightened her robes and strode towards the desk in the far corner, where Remus was sitting behind a massive stack of books.

'Hi Remus,' said Lily. Remus jumped, his pale face flushing, a page of the book which he was about to turn tearing out with an ominous ripping sound. 'Oh, sorry-here,' she added, pulling out her wand, '_Repairo_!'

'Th-thanks, I um,' stuttered Remus as the page leapt back into the book, sealed and bound once again, 'what're-you doing here?'

'I'm looking for a book, what are you doing?'

'I-reading,' he laughed nervously, but Lily could hear it was a shallow and fake sort of laugh , 'wh-what else would I be doing in a library?'

'I dunno… Hey Remus, whose scarf is that?'

Remus paled, his fingers trembling as he glanced over at the blue and bronze Ravenclaw scarf lying on the chair opposite Remus.

'I-don't know. I'm not the only person who uses this desk, maybe someone forgot it. Anyway, weren't you looking for a book Lily?'

'Yes, I was,' said Lily, quickly trying to think of a book title, 'um, I was wondering if you could help me...hey-this person's left their bag too! Remus, what's going on?'

'Madam Pince is over there, I'm sure she can help you find your book,' said Remus, sounding flustered.

'Oh you know Pince, she hates me from when James and I were in here and Sirius smashed the window…could you help me? You've been in here an awful lot lately, I'm sure you know the place upside down and inside out!'

'Um-I'm sure Madam Pince will help you, she's obliged to, you're a student. Sorry Lily, I've got to finish this reading, for school…could I just have some time alone-?'

But Lily wasn't listening. A pretty girl, with layered blonde and brown hair, the same age as herself Lily guessed, was heading for the table with an armful of books, smiling at Remus.

'Ooh, Remus, should I be jealous?' she asked, grinning, a mischievous glint in her eye.

'I-um, er…' muttered Remus, looking embarrassed.

Lily, not wanting Remus to spoil things for himself, extended a hand as the girl put her load of books down, 'I'm Lily, Lily Evans, a friend of Remus's.' They shook hands.

'I'm Jasmine,' said the girl, releasing Lily's hand and laughing, 'Jasmine Darwood, and don't worry I was only joking.'

Lily smiled warmly at her, 'So what brings you to the library?'

'Oh, we've got loads of homework now,' said Jasmine, sitting down, and pulling a chair out for Lily, 'the N.E.W.T's are approaching…now I know what they mean when they say 'they're _Nastily Exhausting_ Wizarding Tests.'

Lily smiled, 'Oh god do I know it. Well if you ever need a hand, or someone to talk to…when Remus is busy of course.'

Remus coughed loudly, cheeks reddening.

Jasmine smiled, her laugh high and silvery, 'Of course. Consider us friends, officially!'

They shared a smile, and Lily, standing up said, 'Sorry to intrude, I'll leave you two to it.'

'I-just…don't tell James and the others, okay Lily?' said Remus uncomfortably.

''Course I won't-anyone'd think you didn't know me,' said Lily warmly.

And with a wink, she departed.

Reaching a nearby bookshelf, she stopped, under the pretence of checking the titles, and hid behind it. It seemed unnecessary though, as Remus and Jasmine were both in either's powers.

'Well, she seems nice,' said Jasmine cheerily.

'She is,' said Remus, 'she was a Prefect too, and she's quite good especially when it comes to fighting against the Slytherins…'

'Why didn't she know about me? Haven't you told anyone Remus?' Jasmine sounded slightly amused.

'I-she…my friends would be _unbearable_ Jaz, you've no idea.'

'Oh so the famous Marauders are mean to Mr Lupin?'

'No they'd just tease me. Constantly. Twenty-four seven, asking "have you snogged her yet?" "ooh, Remus, are you going to ask your _girlfriend_ to Hogsmeade?" it would be torture!'

'Well, if Lily is James's girlfriend, no matter how trustworthy she is, from what I've heard he'll probably have it out of her by now,' said Jasmine. Lily, hearing Remus leap up and cry, 'Shoot! By Merlin's baggy underpants, I've got to stop her!', quickly ran through the library, coming across James, with a small audience of girls.

'-really he's very good looking I swear…yes he's nice-'

'-AndJamescouldIborrowyouforas econd? Sorry to break up the cosy chit-chat!' cried Lily, grabbing James and sprinting for the door.

'What is it?'

'James you can't tell them anything else okay?'

'What-why not?'

'It's not our business to pry, okay?'

'Lily, tell me what's going on!' said James firmly.

'Talk to Remus!' said Lily just as firmly, and marched back into the library, ducking past the small gathering of now-chattering girls, and back to Remus's desk. Jasmine was a few rows away putting her last books back.

'Sorry Remus, I had to stop him-he was about to do something stupid. You've got to talk to him.'

James looked confused.

'Lily!' said Remus, shocked, 'I thought I told you not to tell anyone! I thought I could trust you!'

'No, I-Remus, I didn't tell him anything, he was talking to a whole bunch of girls about what an amazing boyfriend you'd be, I had to stop him!'

'He was _WHAT?!'_ yelled Remus, horrified, his mouth open in shock.

'Yes it's the latest scheme, but-please don't kill me Remus, I had to do something! Please can't you guys just talk and figure something out?' asked Lily.

'Right then,' said James, 'What's going on.'

Remus looked as if he wished the floor would swallow him up, and James's face was so comical Lily had to bite the insides of her cheeks to stop herself bursting out laughing.

'It's not…' began Remus, colouring magnificently, 'what it…sounds like.'

'But you _aren't_ going out with someone are you Moony?'

Thick, overpowering silence blanketed them, so intensely it felt as though the air around them had dropped several degrees in heat.

James's eyes widened, 'So you _are_ going out with someone?' he gasped.

'Bu-I-um…Lily, could you, er…?'

'Could I 'er' what?'

'Um…you know, Obliviate might work-?'

'I'm not going to modify James's memory if that's what you mean,' said Lily, 'James. Remus has a girl, who is a friend. You will leave him alone. Remus, do you want to talk to James and sort out this whole mess, or just leave it?'

Remus sighed. 'I'll explain James, but only if you promise not to tell the others and NOT to tease me.'

'Wow, it must be serious!' said James, surprised.

'Oh well, I've got to go do my essay on Levitational Fluids for Slughorn,' said Lily, sensing the boys would find it easier to talk without her.

'Didn't you finish that-?' began James, before seeing Lily's face and shutting up. 'No sorry, that was the essay for Professor Sprout. See you Lily dearest,' he said.

'See you back at the Common Room,' said Lily, turning and walking through the bookshelves, over to Jasmine, and whispering 'Remus is just explaining about you to James...I'd give them a minute if I were you.'

Jasmine and Lily both peered over at them, and heard James ask 'So are you going out with someone or not?'

'_James could you not talk so loudly!_' Remus hissed.

'Oh well...' said Lily, 'I'm not going to eavesdrop.'

'Really?' asked Jasmine, 'I am!'

Lily grinned, 'I would, but James will tell me anyway, and it'd feel dishonest as technically I said I'd leave...but you didn't!'

'So...how did it go?'

'D'you want me to be honest?' asked James, sceptically raising an eyebrow as he paused, his forkful of steak and mushroom pie hovering, mid-way to his mouth.

'Well, what's the not-honest answer?' Lily put down the small dish of mint humbugs and toffees that Dumbledore had somehow managed to sneak onto the dinner menu.

'"Uh, yeah it was great….it went...fine. Uhm, yeah, it was good…it was alright…not so…it was um…"'

'And the honest answer?'

'It didn't go fantastically. Er, he wouldn't tell me much, and then I sorta got in trouble with Madam Pince for yelling "I'll get it out of you Moony, don't you worry about that" as he dashed back into the library.'

'How long've you got detention for?'

'How d'you know I've got detention?'

Lily snorted, 'This _is_ Madam Pince James, not the Fairy Queen!'

'It's three afternoons of reshelving all the books marked "Dangerous".'

'That's a bit harsh!' said Lily, swallowing her hot roast potato rather too quickly and gasping, her mouth blistering as she exhaled the steam from the potato, she gasped 'Aah…uh, ow…but those books are really d-er-dangerous! Ow-ow-ow…those books try to-aah…bite you and rip you, and-ow!-attack and try to maime you and are generally very…hhhha…violent!'

'Yeah, no kidding,' said James, not even noticing that she was in pain, 'I'd better go do my homework then. See ya,' he said, standing up and heading for the Common Room without so much as a backward glance.

Lily, feeling slightly hurt and alone, tried to soothe her tongue by drinking some iced pumpkin juice, but only succeeded in getting an ice-cube stuck to her tongue, as she was busy thinking of James, and whether he really cared about her.

'Are you okay Lily?' came a voice. Lily turned around, the ice-cube still stuck to her tongue.

'I 'ot o'ay! I'o' a i'e 'ube 'uck 'o 'y 'ongue!'

'What was that?' asked Jenny, sitting down and pulling out her wand, 'here, if I get that damn ice cube off, then I'll be able to understand you!'

''Ank 'ou, 'ut 'e 'are'ul'

With a complicated little flourish of her wand, Jenny carefully and precisely melted the ice cube until there was only a tiny cube-shaped sheet of ice in the middle of Lily's tongue, which she melted easily by closing her mouth.

'Thanks Jenny,' said Lily, eyes watering a little, as she scooped the rest of the ice cubes out of her pumpkin juice.

'That's alright-why did you stick an ice cube to your tongue in the first place?!'

'Uh, long story…James was here and I was talking to him then I burnt my tongue on a hot potato-'

'Oh, and he couldn't have done a Soothing Charm or something?'

'Yeah, that's what I thought, but he didn't really notice me at all! Then I was trying to cool it down and I was drinking some pumpkin juice full of ice cubes. And James was already gone.'

'That's sad Lily-I thought he loved you.'

'He-he does,' said Lily, shocked, 'I-I'm sure he does, he's just being…a bit, um…'

Jenny raised her eyebrows. 'We all thought you guys were a match made in heaven,' said Jenny, getting up, 'But if you two can't figure it out…then I don't know who can.'

Lily raised her eyebrow, 'Jenny, it's a fuss caused by a hot potato? SERIOUSLY? I don't think things are THAT bad…are they?'


	14. Chapter 14: Inevitably

**Hey everyone, I've been told that Lily's being a bit selfish in this chapter. Well, yes-NEWTs are approaching, and they're not called Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests for nothing! She's freaking out, she's not herself, ok? ;) I've added a brief explanation, so that everyone can understand Lily a bit more...**

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Chapter 14

_Inevitably_

As the dreaded N.E.W.T's drew closer, Lily began to feel more and more like a robot. She would get up, collect her books, race down to breakfast, hastily shovel down some food and then rush off to lessons.

She also found this way of life made her extremely cross, tired and self-centred. Suddenly everything like who got the gravy boat first seemed to matter an awful lot to Lily and her study regime, and she found she wasn't herself. She was more centred on herself-if she didn't pass SHE would suffer, so Lily spent quite a bit of time being irritated with everybody else, stuck in her own world, her mind focused only on the exams.

Soon Jasmine and Remus weren't the only ones spending lunch times and afternoons in the library: more than half of the Seventh Years spent their time there, squashed into the desks which seemed rather too small for them now. This meant that Madam Pince spent all her time prowling around and crying out in horror when a page was crinkled, handing out detentions if a spot was left on the books or the desks, and if anybody so much as whispered too loudly they would feel the full force of Madam Pince, brought down on their head in the form of a large 7000 page volume of _Spelles of Olde. _

This also meant that Remus and Jasmine were forced to sit and study with their friends, condemned only to look across at each other wistfully from time to time before James would interrupt saying, 'What're you looking at Moony?'

Lily found this slightly irritating, as she sat with her friends and saw James asking, yet again, 'Who're you going out with Moony? Tell me! What's her name?'

'I couldn't tell you if I knew,' said Remus, which Jasmine (who Lily had met in the bathroom) had said was an answer they had come up with together, though admittedly, it made the Marauders even more suspicious.

_Why was it any of James's business, _thought Lily grumpily, over her Transfiguration essay, _if Remus was going out with __hundreds__ of girls? WHY does he need Jasmine's name so he can tease and taunt Remus every minute of the day? It's like he's gone back to being Fifth Year James, a horrible bully without a brain!_ She thought crossly, re-reading her essay.

After declaring the essay finished, Lily pulled her stack of books closer, an extracted several extra Defence Against the Dark Arts books.

'What're those for Lily?' asked Jenny, interestedly.

'Defence Against the Dark Arts,' answered Lily non-committedly, propping _Techniques for Eluding Death: Advanced Defensive Incantations_ against her other books so she could read it.

'I know _that_, silly, I can read!' said Jenny, 'But-why do you need extra textbooks Lily? You're very good at Defence Against the Dark Arts.'

Lily tried very hard not to snort, not having told her friends.

'Oh, in practice she is,' said Mary, idly flipping a page of her Charms book, 'but not in the last test.'

Lily turned pale and looked up.

'What?' asked Jenny.

'Didn't you know?' said Mary, still not looking up, 'she got twenty five percent.'

'You what?' asked Jenny, shocked.

'How do you-?'

'I found it in your bag,' said Mary, looking up to see Lily, aghast, 'well don't look so surprised! You left your bag on your bed, and plus, it was you who got the bad mark, not me.'

Glaring daggers at Mary, Lily picked up her things and, tears prickling her eyes, rushed from the Library.

She collided with James on the way, and half-hoped he'd follow her, ask what was wrong and comfort her, but, though he was looking in her direction, he didn't.

Lily rushed down the stairs, tore through a tapestry and sprinted down the corridor, until she reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, yelled the password at it, then bolted up to the Dormitory. Crying, she found the test, and, Levitating the piece of paper, she cried 'Incedio!' Golden flames began to lick at the paper, shrivelling it into a black ashy ball. Lily sat down heavily on her bed, vision obscured by the choking tears now overcoming her.

She did not notice the merry flames as they leapt to the drapes on Mary's four-poster bed. Nor did she notice the smoke, or see how rapidly the fire was spreading. Only when there was a horrible burning smell and thick, black smoke began to sting her eyes, did Lily look up, and scream, the sharp smoke stinging her eyes and mouth and throat. Gasping Lily picked up her wand, brushing some burning cinders from its surface and screaming, 'Aguamenti! Aguamenti! AGUAMENTI!'

Then, exhausted, she collapsed in the smouldering rubble.

It was hours later when the other girls finally came up to bed, and found Lily trying to put the charred drapes.

'LILY!' screamed Mary angrily, 'What have you done?!'

Waking with a jolt, Lily looked up. 'What?'

'WHY DID YOU SET MY BED ON FIRE? JUST _HAD _TO GET REVENGE DIDN'T YOU!

'I didn't…you started it!'

'No I didn't!'

'Yes you did you looked at my marks!' Lily leapt up angrily.

'Well it's not against the law is it?' said Mary, stepping away from the other three girls and facing Lily with a sneer.

'I thought you were supposed to be my friend Mary!'

'Yeah, doesn't that give me the right to know what marks you get?'

'Look, just because you're going out with Sirius doesn't mean you have to copy his arrogance and be a nosey twit!'

Suddenly Mary went very quiet, and looked embarrassed.

'What, has little Snuffles broken up with you?' sneered Lily furiously, 'Didn't you expect it?'

Mary burst into tears.

Lily felt like hitting herself, 'Oh my god-I'm so sorry Mary-I didn't mean to...'

'Was I really that stupid?' sobbed Mary, 'W-was it th-th-that obvious?'

'No I-I was…I'm just sad because James and I are drifting apart. I'm sorry Mary, I really am,' said Lily sadly.

'Everyone looks up to you you know Lily. You're p-popular and kind...and I'm just a no-good loser. S-so I guess I wanted some way to g-get back at you!' Mary sniffled.

Lily hugged her tight, 'Mary, you are not a loser. You are wonderful and kind and brilliant and smart. And if Sirius doesn't see that, then who cares? You can do much better than him.'

Mary smiled, 'Thanks Lily. And I'm sure you and James will sort it out.'

Lily gave her a half-smile, 'I hope so.'

As Lily lay in bed that night, trying to ignore the smell of singed fabric, she remembered Mary's words. 'Everyone looks up to you Lily.' Did they really? And should they? Who were they looking up to? A girl with no idea what to do, and a boyfriend she didn't know much about. What a role model


	15. Chapter 15:House-Elves and Sherbet Lemon

Chapter 15

House Elves and Sherbert Lemons

Waking to the sound of birds calling, Lily yawned, stretched and slipped out of bed.

She got dressed, collected her things, quietly, so as not to disturb the four girls sleeping in their four-poster beds, Mary's somehow with brand-new drapes. Then Lily made her way to the Room of Requirement to practice Defence Against the Dark Arts.

The next few days passed in a blur of revision.

Lily did not sleep for several nights, and became very tired, crabby and nervous. The N.E.W.T's were fast approaching, and everybody in the Seventh Year was feeling the pressure.

The teachers handed out practice tests in preparation and Lily spent every waking hour not in lessons, save breakfast and dinner-she now had no time for lunch-in the Room of Requirement. Though Hogwarts' own library _should_ have had more books and resources, the Room seemed fully equipped with every book Lily could imagine, stacked into towering shelves complete with a magical ladder that jumped shelf-to-shelf. There were books on all her subjects, and several additional volumes on Test-Taking and Stress Relief, and the Room was so much quieter than the library, crammed full of Seventh Years, their quills scratching away, sighing, tapping their pencils onto the desks-not to mention the younger students laughing and giggling and scraping chairs loudly as they stood up.

_Lucky I asked the Room for a place I could stay in private_, thought Lily gratefully, _or I'd have James coming in here all the time just to purposefully ignore me._

Lily had found James to be increasingly insensitive. Yes, of course, the pressure must have been getting to him as well, but that was no reason to completely ignore her! He could at least say hello every now and then…it made Lily's heart ache when she thought of how happy Remus and Jasmine were…

Shaking her head, Lily closed _Brewery Moste Advanced (Theory)_ with a snap, having finished the last page.

What was the point of worrying about her relationship with James? It probably couldn't be saved anyway…and she'd really thought they had done well together for a while…

Trying to stop thinking about her once caring boyfriend, now seemingly insensitive twit, Lily glanced at her watch. 10:30pm-that was early for how long she would be staying up to pursue her studies, but it meant she had missed dinner.

Lily's stomach rumbled, and she found herself wishing she'd brought a sandwich.

Deciding she could take a quick break, she began to pace. The Great Hall would be empty. Nobody would be up, and there certainly wouldn't be any food on offer.

She put her head in her hands, stamped her foot and said irritably, 'I wish I had some food!' Her voice echoed around the large domed of her study hall combined with library.

'I wish I had some food…'

'Wish I had some food…'

On the third repetition of the request, with a loud grating sound, a large flagstone in the floor slid away, revealing a staircase, leading into a dark passageway.

Glancing around, Lily said 'I'll be back,' to no-one in particular, and descended the staircase. The passage at the end of the stairs was rather small, so Lily had to stoop right over, and walk along with one hand in front of her so she didn't collide with anything, not being able to see clearly ahead of her. But it wasn't long before the tunnel came to an end and she was pushing another flagstone away, to find herself in pitch black darkness.

'Hello?' called Lily, stepping up out of the passage-way and finding her footing, 'hello, who's there?'

There was a sudden loud clap. Lights came on, flooding what Lily now saw to be a large kitchen, the flagged floor impeccably clean and hundred of gleaming pots and pans hanging up on the walls.

She glanced around to see four tables, exactly like the four House tables, and realized that a fire had suddenly sprung up in the grate. With a gasp, Lily suddenly realized she wasn't alone. Dozens and dozens of large, shining, orb-like eyes stared back at her, blinking solemnly.

Looking closer, Lily realised that the bright, tennis-ball shaped eyes belonged to dozens and dozens of bizarre-looking creatures, with large ears, all wearing crisp white togas stamped with the Hogwarts crest.

'What the-?' Lily muttered, rubbing her eyes, unable to believe what she was seeing.

'Is-is Miss one of the Learners?' asked one of the creatures shyly in a strange, squeaky little voice.

'Learners?' asked Lily.

'No, is too old,' said one of the creatures.

'Yes, and where it come from?'

'They haves ones which is seventeen though…'

'Miss, Miss, is you seventeen?'

'Yes, I'm seventeen…' said Lily slowly, feeling oddly like a giant compared to these tiny, waist-high creatures.

'Does you go to here?'

'What? I-I go to school here,' said Lily, 'I'm sorry to have disturbed you, you see I was in the Room of Requirement and-'

But the rest of her tale was drowned out in the creatures' cries of delight.

'She is Learner!'

'Quick Widgey, get soup!'

'Miss we was not knowing you was Learner here at Big School,' said one of the funny creatures, coming up to her and bowing, 'We is most sorry.'

'That's alright,' said Lily, 'Um-what is… I mean, what are you? And why are you at Hogwarts?'

'We is House-Elves Miss,' said the Elf, showing her to one of the tables and sitting her down, 'And what woulds you like to eat Miss?'

'Oh-I…I don't really…er…you wouldn't have any leftovers or anything? I don't want anyone to go to any trouble…'

'Basil, Parsnip, Turnip, Minty, Widgey!' cried the Elf, 'Can we haves some…left…overs for Miss?'

Lily watched, amazed, as the four Elves began calling out to the others, who all began warming up all sorts of food, bobbing to and fro with pots, pans, containers and baskets all stuffed full of food from the feast.

'And would Miss like anything to drink?'

'Oh, uh…a glass of water would be lovely,' said Lily, amused and delighted as, straight away, a little Elf was dodging through the crowded kitchen, a glass of water balanced on its head.

'Thank you,' she said, taking a sip as the little Elf scurried off, 'And what's your name?' she asked the Elf that had been attending to her.

'I is Oakey Miss,' he said, sweeping an elaborate bow.

'Nice to meet you Oakey,' said Lily, shaking his hand, much to Oakey's surprise.

Just then, a long procession of food-laden House-Elves began to lay all sorts of dishes on the table. Lily's jaw dropped.

There was enough food to feed the entire Seventh Year, and the teachers…and then some. Pies, roast potatoes, quiches, chicken legs, salads, platters of cheeses, pasta, soups, stews, lasagne, all kinds of fish, including, strangely, kippers.

There were éclairs, tarts, puddings, pastries, ice-creams, cinnamon buns, chocolates, and platters of fruit.

'I-wow,' said Lily, 'Er, I'm not sure I'll be able to carry it all back to the Room of Requirement…' But already, Oakey was clapping his hands, and the Elves all picked the food back up.

'What're you…?'

'Lead on, Miss, to this Requirement Room!' said Oakey.

So, dazed, Lily crawled into the tunnel, bent over and showed the long trail of twenty or so House Elves through the tunnel, lighting her wand as she went.

When the entire parade of Elves emerged into the Room, gasping at how huge it was, Lily realized how selfish and clueless she was being. She had not even noticed, in her hunger, that these living, breathing, creatures were kept confined to the kitchens-which, now she remembered them, weren't very big at all-like slaves. And there were so many more of them that had not accompanied them to the Room!

'But-don't you ever get out of the Kitchens?' asked Lily, as the Elves looked around for somewhere to place the food, 'You-you aren't locked in there or anything are you?'

'Oh no Miss!' said Oakey, 'we is allowed out, of course!' Lily felt calm washing through her, 'I means, Miss, who would clean up and put warm brickses in beds if House Elves was not allowed?'

Lily's eyebrows shot down her face in fury. How could Dumbledore allow this?

'Er, thank you very much for the food,' she said, as the Elves found a large stone cavity in the wall, lined with ice. As the stone 'door' swung shut, Lily was reminded forcibly of the refrigeratior in her muggle parents' house.

'This's is nothing Miss,' said Oakey cheerily, as the House Elves filed back out through the tunnel, 'Hungry Learners is always prevailing on us House Elves for food!'

And with that, the last of the Elves slipped away into the tunnel, and Oakey heaved the slab of stone back over his head calling 'If you is ever needing anything else Miss…'

Lily had to sit down. She was shocked that in her whole Six-and-three-quarter years at Hogwarts, she failed to notice that they were being waited on hand-and-foot by _slaves_. They were highly intelligent, living creatures with feelings, so far as Lily could tell, being oppressed and constantly on-call to attend to the Castle and its inhabitants' every need.

Lily stood up suddenly, knocking over her chair and bolting from the room. _There's still time for revision…tomorrow-Sunday, the last day before N.E.W.T's began, that would suffice…_she'd pull an all-nighter if she had to.

Brain pounding, Lily weaved through the many corridors, trying to recall exactly what Professor Slughorn had told the Slug Club about the Headmaster's Office.

'Guarded by a gargoyle, that's right…normally the password is something to do with sweets-oh , but I shouldn't be saying this should I?' he had said with a wink.

Changing course, away from the dormitories, Lily wondered why there hadn't been any invitations from Slughorn this year, when there had been so many in previous years…

_I hardly saw him during the O. _, thought Lily, _but they only went on for a few months…though I supposed the whole year is assessable for N.E.W.T's , so the Seventh Years in the Slug Club must be temporarily suspended so Slughorn can gloat over their hard work and excellent marks…_

Taking her mind of Slughorn's obsession of collecting over-achievers, Lily, still smiling slightly, found herself rounding a bend and catching sight of a large stone gargoyle.

Panting, she approached it. 'Um, is this…Professor Dumbledore's office?' she asked.

'Naturally,' said the gargoyle superiorly, 'Who else has a guard to keep out the rif-raf?'

'I-er…okay, password, um…I'm sure I can remember it…' _Something to do with sweets,_ Lily reminded herself. _Right_, she thought, 'Uh, Exploding Bon-Bons? Sorbet Crystals? Ice Mice? Levitating Sherbet? Lime Jelly-Leaves? Expandable Jelly-Serpents; Glowing Fruit-Straps...?'

'If I didn't know better,' drawled the gargoyle, 'I'd say you _hadn't_ been told the password by Professor Dumbledore.'

'I…I, um…Professor who?' asked Lily, thinking fast, fixing a confused expression on her face, 'Professor Dumb…bell…door?' she waited a full ten seconds, the gargoyle looking utterly bamboozled. 'Oh! Yes…Dumbledore! Yes. He-he did give me the, the…the-what was it again?'

'The _password!_' said the gargoyle irritably.

'Oh yes-bless you! The password! Dumbledore gave it to me-I-I have an…appointment. You see I-I don't have a very good…memory.'

'Yes, I can tell,' grumbled the gargoyle, 'look, I can only give you another three guesses,' it said loudly, as though speaking to a very deaf old antelope, 'Because this-is-the-Head-_master's_-off-ice. So-not-just-any-one-can-come-in-here!'

'I understand _that!_ I'm not deaf-! I mean, yeah, 'course,' said Lily rather too quickly, 'Um, just give me a minute…er…um…I'm sure I can remember…uh, Sprouting Strawberry Creams?' the gargoyle frowned, 'No? Uh, wait a minute…Halo Honeybursts? No, no…er, um…'

Lily racked her brain, thinking of all the sweets she had seen in Honedukes with James…but she hadn't really been taking any of it in-she'd been thinking about James, who now never thought of her at all…

'Come on goldfish!' the gargoyle interrupted her train of thought, 'I can't wait around for your five-second memory span all night!'

'I-um-Tongue-Dissolving Chewing Gum!'

'_What_ did you just say?'

'I…Tongue-Dissolving Chewing Gum.'

'Well,' said the gargoyle, highly affronted, 'Well I never! I never thought you'd remember it. Oh go on then,' it leapt aside to reveal a revolving staircase, which Lily stumbled up, not believing she'd managed to guess the password to Dumbledore's own study.

As the door spiralled into view, she heard voices, and suddenly realized she had no idea what to say. Dumbledore was probably talking to somebody, and knowing Dumbledore, one of Hogwarts' most celebrated pupils, it was most probably someone very important.

Lily froze, her fist a few inches from the door, poised to knock. She could always come back another day, after N.E.W.T's …_no Lily, stop procrastinating! You're here now and if you chicken out and run away now you KNOW you'll never get round to it!_ But there was N.E.W.T revision to do, it wasn't important to do this…_Lily Evans, are you going to let those creatures suffer just because you're too scared and shy to interrupt Professor Dumbledore?_

Lily stood there a second longer. _Yes_, said her brain, and she scurried down the stairs, leaping out at the bottom and turning down the corridor.

Guilt began to flood her stomach. The House-Elves needed her help, and she had given up at the first obstacle.

All of a sudden, she collided with something, sending it flying backwards.

'James?' she asked hopefully. James wasn't shy-together they could face Dumbledore and-

'No Miss, I is Bogie,' said the thing. Looking down, Lily realized it was a House Elf, carrying a large pile of washing.

'You're doing the wash-? Hang on, did you just say your name is _Bogie_?!'

'Yes Miss,' said the Elf, picking up a loose sock. 'Bogie is so sorry to have you See me Miss!'

'What?'

'We is not to be Seen Miss, we is House Elves. We on orders from Dum-'

'Right, that's it!' cried Lily suddenly, sprinting back toward the gargoyle.

'TONGUE-DISSOLVING CHEWING GUM!' she yelled at it, as the stone staircase sprang open.

Leaping up every one, Lily rapped loudly on the door, absolutely furious, her whole body trembling with rage.

The voices stopped, and the calm, commanding tones of Dumbledore called, 'Enter.'

Lily burst over the threshold, only dimly taking in the grandeur of the study (though still quite empty of furniture)-a large desk, a carpet, scattered with stars, a spindly table holding a single, teapot-like silver instrument, and a golden perch on which stood a magnificent golden and scarlet bird. She registered this all in an instant, before yelling, 'ALBUS PERCIVAL WULFRIC BRIAN DUMBLEDORE!'

'It is an exceptionally long name, and quite a mouthful, isn't it?' came a pleasant voice. Lily's eyes fell on the man sitting behind the large wooden desk.

Dressed in flowing robes of pale, light, silvery blue, adorned with what appeared to be white wisps of idle clouds, Dumbledore sat calmly at the desk, his fingers interlocked, his chin resting on them. She had never seen Dumbledore up close before. He had a kind smile and shockingly blue eyes behind half-moon spectacles, which were perched on an extraordinarily crooked nose. The silvery streaks in his auburn hair and beard were more prominent now, and Lily found herself pondering Dumbledore's age, despite his seemingly endless energy.

'I am not as young as I was,' said Dumbledore, eyes twinkling.

'Oh no I wasn't-' Lily began, embarrassed, realizing she was staring.

'That is quite alright.'

'Rude little snipe!' came a voice. Lily spun around and realized it came from one of the portraits of all the previous Headmasters and Headmistresses. 'She comes in here, uninvited, shouting at the Headmaster, then stares at him like a goldfish!' Lily suddenly realized who Dumbledore had been talking to, as the surrounding portraits murmured their agreement. 'Though manners in children these days,' continued the old witch, 'well, I'd say they're as rare as hen's teeth!'

'Thank you Nigella,' said Dumbledore, 'that will be all.'

'I don't know why you persevere with it Dumbledore!' scolded the witch. Lily watched, fascinated, as the strange, curly grey-haired woman readjusted her horn-rimmed spectacles perched on her stubby, hooked nose, continued imperiously, 'I mean, what do you actually get out of this "letting the children run free" sort of approach, hm? Does it make any difference, other than the fact that the children have no respect for you whatsoever?'

'Professor Dumbledore is a great Headmaster!' burst out Lily, 'We all have respect for him, how could we not?!' Lily suddenly closed her mouth. Yelling at this rude lady wasn't going to make things easier.

Nigella looked highly affronted, opening and closing her mouth like a goldfish.

Lily didn't pay her any attention, remembering why she was there, turned back to Dumbledore. 'How DARE you keep House-Elves enslaved, and under strict orders not to be seen?!' yelled Lily. 'HOW DARE YOU?'

Dumbledore smiled pleasantly, his eyes sparkling, 'Is this the only concern you wish to raise Miss Evans?'

'NO!' yelled Lily, 'They _cook_, they _clean_, they OBEY, they wait on everyone hand and foot-and _how _are they repayed? It's slavery sir, and it isn't right!'

'Now, I would just like to make one thing perfectly clear,' said Dumbledore calmly, 'I have never in any way supported the mistreatment of House Elves. Nor do I like the idea of keeping slaves here at Hogwarts. However-'

'Well how come the Elf in the corridor told me it was on orders from 'Dum-' something or other? I don't know anyone else whose name starts with 'Dum'!'

'Unfortunately, the House-Elves are under the supervision of Dumpty, a rather strict inspector of their work. I have never cared for slavery, as I was saying-'

'But you don't care enough to do something, do you? Are you worried people will judge you? You think it's too useful and convenient, so you just dismiss the cruelty-?!'

'Enough,' said Dumbledore lightly. Lily shut her mouth quickly.

'Please sit,' said Dumbledore, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk.

Lily sat down hastily, realizing she had crossed an invisible line and gone too far.

'When I was made Headmaster,' said Dumbledore, 'and I discovered that there are ninety-three House Elves kept in our kitchens, I, also, was astounded.

'However when I informed the House-Elves that I was going to give them their freedom, every one of them begged to stay on.

You see, it is in a House Elf's nature to care for others. That is why so few wish for freedom-it is like a daily duty which they enjoy, so many see Freedom as a great punishment and cruelty. I would also like to add if I may Miss Evans, that I do not see it as useful and convenient to keep House Elves- we are witches and wizards after all, and meals and chores can be completed with the wave of a wand. Nor do I mind if I am judged harshly-people may think what they will, but it will never effect my actions. If an Elf were to ask for pay, or rights, or time off, or even Freedom, as I have told the Elves themselves, I would provide them happily, but unfortunately, I very much doubt I will ever see the day.'

Lily nodded meekly, humbled to realize she had overlooked exactly who she was talking to: the ever-compassionate Albus Dumbledore, happily keeping slaves against their will? It seemed utterly absurd now she thought of it.

'Thank you,' said Lily, standing up, 'Sorry, I-I didn't realize…I just-you see I was thinking of the Elves…'

'Do not be ashamed of your actions!' said Professor Dumbledore, 'On the contrary, you should be proud. Compassion and the ability to stand up for what is right, and speak out for others, are wonderful qualities Miss Evans. Those who do not have them are not such enjoyable people to be around.'

Lily smiled.

'Also, before you return to your studies, congratulations on guessing the password to my study.'

'Oh-yes, sorry about that…Professor Slughorn told us it was usually the name of a sweet-though I'm sure he wouldn't want me to say he had said that.'

'Of course. Well, Professor Slughorn is quite correct-I tend to choose sweets that I particularly like or that I particularly like the name of.'

'That would explain "Tongue-Dissolving Chewing Gum",' said Lily, grinning.

'Yes-although I did try that particular delicacy…'

'Oh?'

'Yes, and my only note from this experience is to make sure you are not required to host a teachers' meeting after tasting any kind of food labelled "Tongue-Dissolving".'

Lily giggled, imagining Professor McGonagall's expression.

'On that note, "Tongue-Dissolving Chewing Gum is a rather outdated name now…it has been my password for most of the year now, and I was rather hoping to acquire another…'

'Not just for the name, I'm assuming? There would be a, ahem, testing, of course?'

Dumbledore smiled, 'Naturally.'

'Well, I'd suggest Sherbet Lemons.'

'Sherbet what?'

'Sherbet Lemons sir. Oh- you wouldn't have heard of them sir-they're a kind of muggle sweet. They're actually quite good.'

'Thank you, Miss Evans, for raising your concerns,' said Dumbledore, as Lily reached the office door, 'and thank you for your recommendation of sweet. I shall investigate as soon as possible.'

'Thank you Professor,' she said, and, happily skipped down the stairs, past the gargoyle muttering about 'stupid children these days...I'll be surprised if SHE passes N.E.W.T's …' and down the corridor, ready to put her nose back to the grindstone in preparation for the biggest school test she would ever take in her life, completely and utterly light-hearted and content.


	16. Chapter 16: Never Eat Wet Toast Syndrome

**Hia everyone! Sorry about no updates for a while-life has an annoying tendancy to do that. You know, be busy. But guess what? **

**I'M ON HOLIDAYS NOW!YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Y!x1000000!**

**so guess whose story will be updated as much as possible? I'll give you three guesses**

**a) this one**

**b) mine**

**c) All's Well That Ends Well**

**d) the one you're reading right now**

**the answer is in the palm of your hand (providing you're using a portable device e.g. IPod, IPhone, IAm IAwesome, Samsung (lalalala, what song did Sam sing?), Jesssung, Lilysung, Jamessung. **

**Anyhow! Here is a painfully short chapter for my wonderful readers (daahlink you are vunderfuhl!), I hope to update soon, in fact I'll go off and start writing the next one now but here is a taster! **

**This is for you Dragoness1400, in the hopes that I will never wake up one day without a head because I forgot to update! **

**Thanks everyone, love you (specially people who review *HINT HINT*)**

**Ps I'm thinking of starting a new story! Any Ideas?**

* * *

Chapter 16

_Never Eat Wet Toast Syndrome_

The first day of May dawned bright and clear, warm sun glittering over the lake as the giant squid's head protruded from its murky depths, glistening, as its tentacles lazily attempted to seize the water-birds skimming the lake's surface, as well as several which it was unsuccessfully attempting to remove from its colossal, barnacled head.

But none of the Seventh Years were enjoying the spectacular view or breathing the fresh air, or even, like the Fifth Years, celebrating the end of their exams

For the Seventh Years, the exams were just beginning.

Every one of them had stayed up late into the night, revising everything they had ever learned, and quite a lot that they hadn't.

Lily, her eyes feeling like sandpaper, found her quill growing increasingly slow as she tried to complete her revision of Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration...but her page was so inviting…her eyes, without her permission, were slowly sliding closed…her head was on the desk…

And she floated away on a cloud of thistledown. _Her cloud flew, higher and higher, past long strings of words, bold and straight like her textbooks, curly and flowing like her own handwriting… '_**to plant a Venomous Tentacula, first clear out the surrounding soil.' **_**'**__Venus is only in transit with Mars every 243 or so years__**…' **__'__**The Twelve Laws of Elementary Transfiguration include Alberta Gamp's tested theory…**__' '…Is rated XXX by the Ministry of Magic…'_

'_Lily…' 'Lily…' 'Lily.' 'Lily! 'LILY!' _It was his voice. The voice she knew so well, that seemed to plague her dreams… _'Lily…Lily I love you.' 'Lily my flower!' _

The voice suddenly changed to a much sterner, commanding one, 'Lily!'

'Huh?!' Lily's eyes flew open, her eyelashes fluttering then blinking furiously as she realized it had all been a dream…

Lily suddenly caught sight of a silvery-blue tabby cat with distinctive spectacle-shaped markings around its face.

_Professor McGonagall_, she thought instantly, before the cat opened its mouth, and, in the unmistakable voice of Professor McGonagall, said, 'All N.E.W.T students are to meet me in the Great Hall at precisely seven forty-five for a brief explanation before your Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests begin.'

And, with a shake of its paw, the silvery Patronus faded in a whispy haze of silvery mist.

Lily yawned, then glanced at her watch, thinking how strange it was that she had dreamt of _James's _voice…she sighed. Again.

'Oh my god!' yelled Lily, reading her watch. Seven forty. She leapt up, grabbed her pencil case and dashed for the door. _Had she really slept that long?_

Dodging a floating chandelier (which, Lily realized was most probably the work of Peeves, venting his frustration that the other ghosts refused to invite him to their special meetings due to his rather 'immature' and 'risqué' behaviour) and trying not to slip in the pools of boiling-hot wax it was causing, Lily sprinted down the hallway. Wrenching open a heavy wooden door she ran down a corridor and a flight of steps, through another passageway-left through a deserted classroom, and out the door at the other end of it, down a corridor, she slid down the banister of the marble staircase, through the Entrance Hall and, panting, she burst into the Great Hall.

Hastily running her fingers through her hair, she moved, in a dreamlike state, through the throng of Seventh Years and over to her friends, shoving her pencil case deep into the pockets in her robes. All of the Seventh Years, Lily realized, had dark circles under their eyes, hair was tousled, and yawns escaped them at regular intervals.

Just as Lily had caught her breath, the entire clump of N.E.W.T students went silent.

Looking up, she saw McGonagall standing at the head of the teachers' table.

Professor McGonagall waited until everyone was silent before she began.

'Good morning Seventh Years. I trust you have all prepared as fully and properly as you can for your N.E.W.T's. They will, after all, shape your future careers. Now, Professor Dumbledore, as Headmaster, would normally have a speech for the Seventh Years, but he is currently "speaking with the House-Elves",' McGonagall looked disapprovingly at Lily, her voice rather bitter, 'and does not see fit to leave such an, er, _engaging _audience with the creatures, so sends his sincere apologies.'

Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared and she pursed her lips irritably.

'Still,' she continued, 'due to an old Hogwarts tradition, the Seventh Years will eat breakfast before the other students, with the N.E.W.T examiners, who arrived earlier this morning. I hope I do not have to remind you that your behaviour must be _impeccable_,' said McGonagall sternly, glaring at James and Sirius who were sniggering and whispering 'We have to eat breakfast with _those_ dinosaurs?' 'Do they even have the strength to hold a knife and fork?!'

'Afterwards you will be sorted into four different groups to complete different parts of your theoretical and practical examinations.'

There was a ripple of conversation: _if there were four different groups all doing different parts of their exams at different times, surely that meant…?_

'And no, Mr Black, the four groups will _not_ have the chance to talk or leak answers to each other throughout the week of the examinations.'

The gleeful look seemed to slide from Sirius's face like a raw egg.

'And I can assure you,' said McGonagall, glaring at the many students who had looked excited at the prospect of cheating, 'that there have been many magical measures taken against cheating, so I do not advise you to try it. Verity Blodgill's stay in the Hospital Wing last year were not caused by exam nerves as many suspected, but by her attempt to copy her neighbour's work.'

'I remember that,' Lily heard James whisper, 'She sprouted antlers and a handlebar moustache!'

'So be warned,' McGonagall said.

She gave each and every one of them a stern glance. Then, with a wave of her wand, she said 'Let breakfast commence.'

The Hall, which Lily now realized was quite dark except the thin rays of weak sunlight from the top windows, was suddenly bathed in light as all the candles overhead were lit with a wave of Professor McGonagall's wand. Everybody began to sit down, and seven wizened old witches and wizards strode through the door of an antechamber of the Hall and seated themselves at the various tables.

Lily found herself seated next to an old witch who said she was Elida Crevice, and wasted no time in giving them all a "brief" history of her life story, during which Lily, Mary and Jenny, the closest to the old witch, tried their best to appear attentive, as golden plates and all sorts of dishes like yoghurt, cereal, porridge, muffins, crumpets, tea, toast, coffee (for they would, after all be spending three weeks completing the most intense tests of their lives) and small chocolates wrapped in brightly coloured paper.

Breakfast would have been an enjoyable affair, had it not been for Lily's nerves about the coming three weeks of gruelling examinations. Looking around, Lily was sure that all of the other Seventh Years felt the same (well, except perhaps Peter, who was happily eating his fifth crumpet-slathered in marmalade and topped with four chocolates-without a care in the world). There was plenty of food, and the examiner next to her (whose name Lily had promptly forgotten while trying to remember Celity Wellindore's opinion on Self-Fertilizing Plants) told many tales of her travels, and seemed to have a lot of knowledge tucked away under her wispy white haired head.

Lily sat nervously, wringing her hands and trying to mentally revise everything. Unfortunately, her concentration was broken by none other than the Marauders, flicking jam at each other across the Gryffindor table.

Annoyed, Lily asked Jenny (who was on the old examiner's other side), 'Why are they so immature?'

'Oh I don't know,' said Jenny, pausing in the act of buttering her toast, 'they're just…boys.'

'Exactly,' said the examiner, turning to Lily, 'I find that only about _my _age do most males actually have some slight intellect. There are rare exceptions of course…though even some of those are just as immature and boastful about how clever they are. And for some the stupidity is all just an act.'

Lily looked longingly across the table at James. _Could it really just be an act? Could he just PLEASE go back to being the wonderful person she had shared so much time with, or did he not exist anymore? Was HE just an act, a rouse to finally get Lily to fall for him? _It shattered her heart just to think of such things.

Tuning back in to the conversation, Lily realized that the examiner was rambling on about boys and how immature they were and how much heartbreak they had caused her at the chipper age of seventy-two. This lady was a little unfair to boys, she thought reasonably. Then Lily blinked. _DON'T THINK ABOUT JAMES. It's N.E.W.T's you should be worrying about!_

Sirius's voice floated down the table at that moment, 'Ew, my toast's _soggy!_ It's in some sort of puddle. I am _not_ eating that.'

'Sirius, it's just a bit of orange juice, it'll add flavour!'

'YUCK! James Potter you're disgusting. No, I'm sorry, I don't eat soggy toast. I have a chronic case of "**N**ever **E**at **W**et **T**oast **S**yndrome".'

The Marauders and people surrounding them burst out laughing. Except Peter, who sat in between Remus and James, who paused in shovelling down his scrambled egg, asking 'What? What's so funny?'

'Sirius said 'Never Eat Wet Toast Syndrome, Peter,' explained Remus, 'if you take the first letters of Never Eat Wet Toast Sydrome, what do you get?'

'N…A…um, E…T…?'

'N.E.W.T's !' said James exasperatedly, 'Peter, you get N.E.W.T's ! Newts! Our exams, get it?'

'Oh,' said Peter. 'Why's that funny?'

Lily watched as James banged his head against the table.

Everyone in the hall looked up as McGonagall stood up at the teachers' table, still vacant except for three of the examiners, one of whom was listening intently, another who was reading a long scroll that was trailing onto the floor, and another who had fallen asleep with his hair and beard trailing into the butter dish.

'Seventh Years,' said McGonagall as the plates and remaining food disappeared, 'I will now tell you your allotted group for the examinations.'

Everyone stood up, and Lily, legs shaking, felt just as horrified and nervous as she had in First Year when she was to be Sorted. Steeling herself, she took a deep breath and thought _Prepare yourself for N.E.W.T's Lily. Welcome to Hell._


	17. Chapter 17: Dinner by Candlelight

**Heya everyone! Spent the ENTIRE day SLAVING over this for you all: it's a lot longer than the last one *bows* a lot better written *jump for joy* and generally awesomer *questionig the dictionary concerning that word just mentioned that probably doesnt exist*-made it up from scratch in a day! WOOHOO go me! ;) Not proud-as-punch or anything ;) I skipped about two and a half weeks of N. 's ...sorry, I have soooo much planned after this. Not giving anthing away but there will be romance, heartbreak, teenage drama, teenage angst, teenage Lily-going-insane-as-in-really-really-really-angry! mwahahaha I didn't give anything away there-'cause can you really trust me? Am I actually going to include that stuff or did I make it up? Ooooh, I'm bad!**

**It's really weird but for some reason whenever I write 'NEWTs ' with the full stops, it gets rid of 'WTs ' so if you see something like that plz let me know so I can fist bang my head aganst the wall then second, FIX IT! ;) I keeps undoing-grr! Maybe I should just leave out the full stops?**

**Aanyhow! I do this for you, my awesome, amazing fans! It really motivates me when I get reviews too, so if you have any ideas (I've got the skeleton of the plot but really need to flesh it out still) please PM me or review for any requests of things like puns, word plays, things that happen, characters to include etc! Thank you thank you! Mwa! **

**WARNING: THS CHAPTER INCLUDES SERIOUS EXAMS AND A FOOD-FIGHT WITH DESSERT. OH AND SOME MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL QUOTES. GOTTA LOVE MONTY PYTHON! YOU HAVE BEEN WARMED. AHEM, KEYBOARD THAT WAS WARNED. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!**

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Chapter 17

_Dinner by Candlelight_

_Describe the use, origins and literal translation (of the incantation) of a Flame-Freeze Charm…_

_State the 15 Defiable Laws of Physics (outlining those which Muggles see as Undefiable or CONCRETE laws)_

_At which time of year is it best to observe Neptune, and which if any, telescope should be used?_

_The combination of Foxglove, snake's venom, powdered moonstone, aconitum, and Abrus precatorius (BONUS! List other names for latter) are the core ingredients of which 7 base potions?_

_In which year was the Centaur's famous rebellion defeated?_

_Describe the habits, appearance and advice for dealing with, a Demiguise (and where they are found)._

_Extended answer question: explain the procedure of Conjuration._

_Explain non-verbal spells, their pros and cons and how to perform them._

The questions spun around in Lily's head even now, and she was sure she'd got some of them wrong.

N.E.W.T's were intense. Already, three quarters of the N.E.W.T students had been sent to Madam Pomfrey due to nervous breakdowns, and Peter had been in there nearly every day.

Lily found herself longing for days where she could do other things at the same time as her homework or test revision. This was just full on, crazy, exhausting. _Nastily Exhausting_ Wizarding Tests. Lily now began to appreciate just HOW nastily exhausting.

Exam after exam after exam. Lily spent hours with her eye jammed up to a telescope rim; demonstrating a practical spell; filling in an exam paper; revising; checking the answers to tests she'd taken; revising; explaining the magical properties of plants; describing the light vermillion colour a Flight Potion needed to take on; examining history books; more practical demonstrations; quick food break!; then back to the humdrum routine: revise; exam; practical; revise; exam; practical.

Soon it was so exhausting she sometimes fell asleep in exams and had to be prodded awake by the concerned examiner.

But soon Lily sat in her last exam, three days before N. were due to finish, poring over her third History of Magic Written Exam. She had just one question left.

_When was the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy first signed and established?_

Sifting back through years of information, Lily tried to remember-she'd read those two dates just a few days ago…1689 and 1692 she remembered were to do with the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. But which was which? Was it established, or signed in 1689? Or vice versa in 1692? Surely it would be signed BEFORE it was established? No…wait, yes…

Mainly to distract herself from her own confusing thoughts, Lily glanced around the classroom in which a quarter of all the N.E.W.T students sat, hunched over their parchment, scribbling answers or thoughtfully sucking the end of their quill, tapping their foot or gazing out the window, deep in thought.

Lily's eyes met the gaze of James-the Marauders had been placed in her group for exams, much to Lily's irritation-and, trying not to let sadness overwhelm her, quickly looked away.

Her eyes came to rest instead on a greasy curtain of hair belonging to the boy directly in front of her.

He had wished her good luck, Lily remembered. She hadn't been sure how to reply-she wasn't exactly sure how she felt about Severus Snape anymore-so hadn't. She felt a little guilty now and thought to herself _Good luck Severus!_

As soon as the words formed in her mind, Severus's head turned slightly and he whispered, 'Thanks.'

Gasping, Lily's brain went into overdrive. _Could he have possibly-? Was it really…? Could he be-did he just-?!_

'Yes,' he said, reading her confused expression rather than her thoughts this time, 'I'm teaching myself the art of Legilimency.'

'How do you do it? _That's really advanced stuff Sev!..._erus. Can you read anyone's thoughts?'

'It's not like "reading someone's mind" Lily, the mind is much more complex than-'

'So can you?'

'No. I-I've tried but I find it easiest on you.' He turned scarlet, and Lily tried not to blush herself.

_Had he been penetrating her mind, intruding her secrets, her dreams and musings…?_

'And don't worry, I'm not much good,' he hissed 'I can only do it with direct eye contact and while your mind is less guarded, like when you're asleep or confused and your mind's wandering aimlessly-I could only pick up the "good luck" and something about a question you can't answer.'

Lily wrenched her mind away from the complex issue of Legilimency-and how Snape must have been watching her to be able to make eye contact and read her thoughts. Maybe his greasy hair was the perfect screen, so people didn't realize he was staring?-and said, 'Oh, yeah, I'm on the last question.'

'1689 it was signed, 1692 it was established,' said Severus out of the corner of his mouth, turning back to his test as the examiner walked by his desk.

Lily sat there, trying to stop her mouth dropping open, not sure what to do. _He'd told her the answer._ Now she could practically see the page she'd read about the Statute of Secrecy so clearly-yes, she could see the exact phrasing, and the greasy stain of strawberry jam across the right margin…she remembered it so well now…surely it wouldn't be cheating?

No-one would know. Besides, she thought bitterly, who would believe that the aspiring Death Eater Snivellus Snape would talk to, let alone give answers to, Lily Evans, the (admittedly powerful) mudblood? Lily's skin still crawled at the word.

She was torn between cheating or not cheating. Do the right thing or shame the House of Godric Gryffindor?

Lily _knew_ she was putting WAY too much thought into one question-was it really cheating anyway?-but it was a hard call. Was it cheating or not? She'd remembered herself afterwards…it was, um, memory jogging.

What if someone found out though? She knew, if she wrote it down as Severus had said, she'd be plagued with guilt for months, because that was the sort of person she was-brutally honest, true to herself and more often than not scot-free.

'Time to finish now students,' called Professor Gringe, the N.E.W.T examiner overseeing them.

With a sense of doing the right thing, Lily scribbled '_?'_ then handed her parchment to Professor Gringe as he came around to collect the exams (he had told a particularly nasty anecdote involving a badly-cast Summoning Charm and some test papers, which had ended up in some muggle railway station in Calcutta, and he'd finished by saying 'That's why I always collect the papers manually.').

Slightly exhausted and very glad that N.E.W.T's were almost over, Lily collected her things and headed for the door. James held it open for her, which made Lily (and Severus, right behind her) scowl, especially when James "coincidentally" let the door swing back to hit Snape in the face.

'Why are you being such a horrible prat?' snapped Lily angrily, striding down the corridor. She didn't need to pick Severus up and fawn over him like an anxious mother-Lily hated it when people did that to her, so assumed he would as well.

'Like you care,' said James bitterly.

'What happened to you James?' she cried exhasperatedly, 'You were so lovely and sweet but now you're sulky, horrible and moody and you just ignore me! We don't seem to have time for each other anymore. I thought we were supposed to be going out! It's like we've both gone our separate ways James, and we both know it.'

'No, we DON'T both know it! Look Lily, I've been really busy with N.E.W.T's -so have you!'

'But you started ignoring me ages before N.E.W.T's began-you don't even acknowledge I'm ALIVE anymore!'

'-And there's also Quidditch, and Rem-' he glanced around at the crowded corridor and said quietly, 'look, can we discuss this later? Meet me on the Third Floor at nine o'clock.'

'Oh James don't-'

'Lily.' She was sucked in by his lovely hazel eyes and she could tell that he lingered on her shining green ones. 'Please.'

'Alright,' she sighed. He went pink and muttered a hasty 'Thanks,' before he dashed off.

Lily smiled, then realized somebody was watching her. She turned around just in time to see a pair of black eyes, burning with pain and humiliation, quickly shielded by a thick curtain of greasy black hair.

Lily felt a pang of guilt as Severus rushed away, clutching his books, head bowed.

She and James may be on the way to re-paving and re-cementing their relationship, but Severus and Lily were far from such an easily mended friendship. And Lily, quite frankly, was at a loss as to what she should to. She sighed. _Boys!_

Her watch had just ticked over to nine o'clock on the dot, when Lily found herself wandering through the dark Third-Floor corridor.

'Hello?' she called quietly, then promptly tripped over something with a loud CRASH!

Swearing, and disentangling herself from what she guessed was a suit of armour, Lily continued down the darkened corridor, hands feelin gallon the wall so as not to lose her way.

After a few minutes, Lily became aware of a flickering golden light to the right a little way ahead of her.

The strange light flickered and changed constantly, throwing shadows onto the flagstones.

Lily crept up to the light, which she now saw was coming from inside an old, unused classroom.

As she stepped through the doorway and into the candlelit room, Lily couldn't help but gape.

Candles adorned the walls emitting a soft (dare she say it?) _romantic_ light. Two desks had been pushed together in the middle of the room, covered by a checked red and white tablecloth, a small vase of roses placed on top.

She looked around and saw a figure hunched over a sideboard made up of the teacher's desk.

'_James?'_ she asked.

He spun around, ladle half-raised toward his mouth.

He was wearing his best dress robes, along with an expression of worry mingled with pride as he saw her shocked, yet joyous face.

'Hello,' he said.

'Wow-you look…god I feel so underdressed!' Lily glanced down at herself.

She'd changed out of her robes to go 'Hogwarts-wandering' as Jenny called it, but, not expecting anything this fancy, had donned her favourite pair of jeans, a white T-shirt and a sweater emblazoned with the Gryffindor crest. She felt very shabby, casual and…out of place.

'D'you want me to go get changed?' asked Lily earnestly, not being disingenuous or faking it, but genuinely worried she had come far too casual, 'I-I could find something in Mary's wardrobe…'

'Lily,' James put down the ladle and came to stand before her, placing his hands on her shoulders, 'You're fine.'

'No but you've put so much effort into this place-you're wearing your DRESS ROBES, and you-you _combed your hair?_! I'm just plain old me!'

James put a finger on her lips.

'Lily if I were the sort of person who only loved you in a designer dress and make up, wouldn't I have two black eyes and several missing teeth by now?'

Lily smiled.

'You don't need make up, fancy clothes or any of that. You've got real, inner beauty, and that's what counts and lasts

'Wow James...that was beautiful-almost like a quote from something.'

'Almost?'

She grinned.

'Anyway…so what's all this?' she added, pointing to the many dishes and tureens on the 'sideboard' desk she had observed earlier.

'This,' he said, 'is our dinner!'

Lily said sarcastically, 'No way, I thought it was someone else's. Hang on, where'd you get it?'

'The kitchens.'

Lily narrowed her eyes. _Please don't tell me he's been taking food from the House Elves._

'And no, it wasn't from the House Elves, I cooked it myself.'

Lily's jaw dropped. 'You can _cook?'_

'Yeah,' said James as if she were crazy to suggest it was unusual, 'Doesn't everyone?'

'Uh, not everyone. Wow James, I'm impressed!'

He smiled at her, 'Now madam, please allow me to escort you to your table,' he said taking her arm and leading her to the table. He held the chair out for her, then waltzed over to the food and served up the entrée, declaring, in a hilarious and outrageous French accent (the kind, Lily thought, you would find in a Monty Python sketch really) that it was 'a laight serviingh of Bruschetta viz tomaetoes, bazeel end elive oi-el!'

Choking back tears of laughter, Lily accepted the Bruschetta, and together they ate and laughed and joked.

By the time James served the main course, they had discovered that they had both watched some Monty Python-Lily because her parents were muggle born, and James because he used to play with a muggle boy from down the street who had a television set-so they wasted no time, over their lasagne soup (which, though it sounds eccentric, Lily found was quite delicious) in quoting loudly 'Your muzzer woz a hamster and your farzzer smelt of elder berries! I fahrt in your general direction, you silly Eenglish Kkknnnnnnnnigggets!' and trying not to cough up their soup or have it come out of their noses from hysterical laughter.

After desert of Bombe Alaska, which they ended up feeding to each other, then laughing while trying to throw a portion of the sponge cake, sorbet and Italian meringue into each other's mouths and as a result, getting it everywhere, they sat in good natured silence, wiping the desert from their faces and smiling at each other.

'I-I never did get to explain why I haven't seen much of you. I really am sorry Lily-I had so much planned, I was so excited. But then mum sent me a letter saying she was ill.'

'Oh no,' said Lily, eyes wide, 'I'm sorry James I didn't realize-I was being really selfish!'

'No, no of course not,' said James, 'you deserve to be appreciated Lily. You're the most wonderful girl I've ever met, and I want to prove it to you. It's just, it wasn't only that, but mum told me I had to get good grades in my N.E.W.T's and I wanted to do her proud, so I've spent all my time revising. And the other night, Remus went missing and-well, it took Madam Pomfrey a long time to clean him up.'

'What happened?' asked Lily, pale as a sheet.

'He ran into the Centaurs. We-we tried to fend them off but there were too many, and Remus was being attacked so his wolf side came out…we didn't want to get bitten.'

'Sensible,' said Lily, gripping the side of her chair, then she burst out 'oh my god James! What possessed you to be so STUPID?'

'I-I'm sorry I didn't mean to-I know you hate me but-'

'Hate you? I'm angry because I'm so worried about you! Because I love you!' she leapt up and flung her arms around his neck, kissing him with a fiery passion rivalled only by his own.

Finally, they broke apart, smiling at each other, Lily now sitting on James's lap. 'Shall we clear away do you think?'

'I think so…probably best.'

And, after cleaning away, using their wands-of course-and racing dishes around the room and laughing and crying and falling in love all over again, Lily found herself heading from the Third Floor corridor with a new outlook on life, and the feeling that she could tackle anything, even three more days of Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests.

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**Hi everyone, this is the third time I've had to go over and edit this chapter because it gets rid of the WTs in NEWTS when I put full stops in. So, even though it's incorrect, I will insert an apostrophe before the T and the s, as FanFiction doesn't seem to delete it then. N.E. (see it did it again!) . N.E.W.T's N.E.W.T's haha, I've beat you now computer!**

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**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! Please think of, to quote Harry Potter Puppet Pals "that poor little [review] button, all lost and alone". Well, here in the amazing Digital game of FanFiction, the more people who click on that little lost and alone review button, the easier it will find life-being blind, it will be able to find its way out of the lost and aloneness. The more you click it the less alone it will feel, and if it gets heaps of reviews for this story, it may even be able to tootle off to town, thanks to your amazing guidance of poking it, and buy a guide dog, which will also need to be poked which may require a few more (hundred thousand) reviews. Phew people, you've got a lot of reviewing to do! Well, snap to it! :)**


	18. Chapter 18: The Disappearing Act

**Thanks for everyone who took the time to review!**

**And to Daniella-keep up the good work in Botswana! Thank you for reading my story, I feel honoured…I aim to keep the updates coming.**

**This chapter is pretty much all about N.E.W.T's. Don't worry there's some good stuff to come next.**

**Guys, is it just me or am I updating far too often now that I'm on holidays. Oh well, I can sort that out. Don't worry, I'll just not update for a few months-that should even out the odds! Don't you think?**

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Chapter 18

_The Disappearing Act_

On Wednesday morning, Lily had a Potions theory exam. She knew all the answers, and as a result ended up finishing ten minutes before everyone else and had to spend the rest of the exam reading. The highlight of Wednesday was the Defence Against the Dark Arts exam, for those which saw Katie Mullins and Evan Galgage sent to the Hospital Wing due to a badly-cast Memory Charm and a Conjunctive Curse.

In her Charms Practical on Thursday, Lily managed to successfully perform the Protean Charm with only one minor hitch; then in Transfiguration she had to Conjure the required rocking chair (receiving extra points for the extravagant curls in the wood and the fancy fabric on the chair cushion); the Potions practical that afternoon was quite enjoyable for Lily-she was very satisfied with the shade of silver her Flight Potion had taken on, and the hard, crystal surface it formed gained her extra marks. The rest of the day was full of rather average exams, including her Herbology Theory, which Lily was sure she would receive at most an 'Acceptable' but, more likely a dreaded 'Poor' or worse, 'Dreadful.'

Even though she had been through weeks of exhausting tests, Lily still very much doubted she'd earned a 'T' for 'Troll' in anything, but then again it was hard to tell, and she hoped her doubts were well-founded.

On Friday she had a Charms Practical, in which she had to perform a Disillusionment Charm to comical effects: Remus, who she had been paired with, only half-disappeared: his entire right side was invisible, and his entire left was visible. Unfortunately the examiner could not undo the Charm, as Lily had been very nervous at attempting it and the effects of the Charm were twice as strong on half of Remus's body (the half that had disappeared) so he would have to wait for two days until he began to reappear fully.

Remus was quite good-humoured about it, saying it was alright, but Lily could tell he secretly found it quite annoying, especially when Sirius got going.

Sirius found it hilariously funny that Remus was half invisible, and walked in front of Remus clearing all the corridors for him saying it was a magical emergency and that half of Remus had been turned invisible, and the half was now so wide that he needed the whole corridor to be vacated simply to walk along it.

Sirius also liked poking Remus's shoulder and asking repetitively 'Can you feel that?' or saying 'You can't _seriously_ tell me that HURTs Remus-there's nothing there!' But then it all got much, much worse when Sirius started telling all the invisible jokes he'd ever heard.

'Hey Remus,' he said in an annoying voice as they rushed off to the Ancient Runes Exam, 'D'you know what would be hilarious?'

'What, Sirius?' said Remus through clenched teeth, rushing up the corridor, James, Peter, Lily, Mary and Jenny all running to keep up with him. Sirius loped along easily, with an evil smile plastered on his face.

'I would be hilarious if you married an invisible woman.'

'What? Why?'

'It would be hilarious if you married an invisible woman 'cause your children wouldn't be anything to look at either!'

Then, on the way to the Ancient Runes Test (which only Lily and Remus were taking as they were the only two of the Marauders, Jenny and Mary who were taking Ancient Runes as a N.E.W.T subject), Sirius suddenly burst out of an empty classroom and said 'Hey Remus, guess what?!'

Remus didn't even answer, jaw set, one visible eye full of cold hatred.

'I said, _guess what_ Remus?!' said Sirius, clearly enjoying Remus's pain.

'What Sirius?' asked Lily, to spare Remus the humiliation.

'I've just been to Hogsmeade in our break,' Lily raised her eyebrows, 'yeah, I was looking for a pair of invisible robes for you Remus…I couldn't see any though. Because they were invisible! Geddit?'

Sirius started laughing hysterically at that, snorting and giggling and pointing at Remus, who had gone very red on the side of his face that was actually visible.

Lily had had to Banish a note to James, waiting outside a classroom for the Astronomy Exam, and have him rush up and escort-also known as drag-Sirius away, giggling like an insane and hysterical banshee.

'Remus, he's just being stupid, don't take any notice,' said Lily, 'You know Sirius…he'll do anything for a laugh, even when it's not funny!'

Remus just grimaced, and couldn't bring himself to explain his situation to the Ancient Runes examiner, who, after half an exam of shooting Remus confused looks, seemed to figure it out for herself.

Over lunch Sirius said loudly, 'I was at St. Mungo's once, and one of the Assistant Healers told the Healer on duty that there was an invisible man in the waiting room to see him. And the Healer said "Tell him I can't see him. Next patient please."' Then began to laugh again, along with a few people who also found the joke funny, but not as many as was Sirius's ordinary audience, as most didn't understand Remus's condition, because he had insisted that Peter sit on his lap so that the fact half his body was missing didn't cause the billions of questions he had received from people in the corridors.

Remus looked away quickly, trying to pretend he hadn't heard, wasn't annoyed by Sirius's constant jibes.

'Remus, you've gone very pale,' said Sirius, 'Especially the half of you that's so pale that it's invisible!'

Remus glared daggers at Sirius, then leapt up, causing Peter to fall head-first into a tureen of shepherd's pie, and ran from the hall.

'Sirius!' cried Lily.

'What?' asked Sirius, 'You don't seriously believe he actually cares do you? He's just putting on a show-it's completely see-through...practically transparent!' as Sirius guffawed at his own wit and James shoved a handkerchief into Sirius's mouth to shut him up, Lily got up and followed Remus out of the Hall.

It took her about three minutes to find Remus, sitting by the bank of the lake, a set expression fixed on his face as he watched the giant squid attempt a bizarre form of backstroke.

She sat down next to him, making sure to be on the side of him that was visible, and they stayed there like that for about five minutes.

Then Lily said, 'You know, he doesn't mean it Remus.' Silence. 'Sirius is just being stupid-he wouldn't be doing it if he thought he was actually upsetting you.'

Remus turned his strange half-face towards her, his silvery grey eye boring into her own, an eyebrow raised, 'Really? Wouldn't he? Because I think he would. I'm not sure if anyone cares about me anymore, including Sirius.'

'Remus what's happened between you and Jasmine?'

Remus's half-mouth fell open. 'How did you know?'

'Lucky guess I s'pose,' said Lily. Remus raised his eyebrow again. 'Well-James and I went through a bit of a hard time, so I reckon some other couples'll be having that too-it's that time of year, and N.E.W.T's are just making romance impossible.'

Remus sighed, 'It's just…everything at the moment-I'm under so much pressure with N.E.W.T's: my parents so want me to do well-but even if I get good grades, who would employ me, what with my "furry little problem" as James calls it? Am I just wasting my life here at Hogwarts, taking the precious time of the Professors to learn all this things? I mean-I enjoy it thoroughly, but what use will it do, when as soon as people hear of my condition I will be reduced to cleaning streets-I'm automatically assumed to be a monster all the time. That's how prejudice the world is out there. And Jasmine-she doesn't know! I can't just keep lying to her-so I figured I should stay away from her.'

'Firstly Remus,' she gave him a hug, 'We'll always be here to support you. I won't deny that some people are stupid and prejudice, but I swear whatever you do we'll be there to help you. Always.'

Remus looked at her, a (literal) half-smile playing at his face, 'Thank you Lily. You don't know how much that means to me.'

'Actually, I think I do,' she said, giving him quick hug, 'With Jasmine-drifting apart from her and stuff... Why don't you try taking a leaf out of James's book and cook for her and have a really romantic little dinner? She'd love it I'm sure,' Lily said, standing up and brushing her robes off, 'Oh and by the way Remus, tell her. Jasmine doesn't seem like the kind of girl who wouldn't accept you for who you are, furry snout or no furry snout.'

'I-I want to, but I don't know how I would…I couldn't stand the hurt on her face.'

'Fine, I'll do it then,' said Lily cheerfully.

'I-' Remus opened his mouth.

'Great! Now let's go tackle those N.E.W.T's shall we? It's the last day Remus! Only a few more hours and an excruciatingly late Astronomy Practical and we'll be free!'

And together they walked back up to the castle to face the music. Or rather, the rest of their exams.

* * *

**PS. You didn't think the previous Author's note was actually SERIOUS did you?!**

**PPS. Sirius's terrible invisible jokes were found on and two websites that this keeps deleteing- jokebuddha and ahajokes (if i leave .com off it seems to keep the site name I think . (I only come up with the one about Remus being transparent and see through etc.****Oh and I really wouldn't recommend going on jokebuddha -I had to sift through heaps of really WRONG gross jokes to find anything half-decent.)There, that's the disclaimer done.**


	19. Chapter 19: Fear

**Merry Christmas everone! 'Tis the season to be jolly!**

**For my very own Jasmine-I'm sorry I can't be there with you, but enjoy Christmas all the same! :)**

**So my munchkins, where were we?**

* * *

Chapter 19

_Fear_

After an intense afternoon of Transfiguration, double Defence Against the Dark Arts and Charms exams, Lily found it excruciatingly hard to believe that at twelve pm on the dot she would have to drag herself out of bed and turn her brain back on for another Astronomy practical.

But she found she HAD to believe it when Jenny shook her awake at 11:40pm and she had to roll herself out of her comfortable bed and get changed out of her pyjamas.

But somehow she managed it, and completed her final exam at exactly 1:30am, only having fallen asleep twice, kissed James goodnight then, after practically sleepwalking back to the Common Room, collapsed into her bed and had fallen instantly into a deep, dreamless sleep.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon the following day when Lily finally awoke, still in the clothes she had thrown on that night.

Yawning, Lily sat up and caught sight of two envelopes on top of the quilt folded at the bottom of her bed.

She ripped open the first envelope (never having been one for daintily unsticking things like a regal Baroness with her diamond-encrusted letter-opener) and pulled out a creamy piece of parchment covered in black, formal, rigid handwriting which she now recognised to be Professor McGonagall's.

_To Miss Lily Evans,_

_As a N.E.W.T student, you are entitled to and duly given the hearty congratulations of all the staff._

_All N.E.W.T level classes have been suspended until further notice, owing to an old Hogwarts Tradition. Students may do as they wish, bearing in mind, of course, not to disrupt other classes. If such behaviour ensues, the due punishments will have to be given._

_Yours Sincerely_

_Professor _

_Deputy Headmistress, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

Lily grinned and punched the air, happily placing the parchment on her bedside table for future reference.

She reached for the second envelope.

It said _Lily_ across its face in neat, welcoming, beautiful yet causal and loopy writing. _How ridiculous, _thought Lily, _how can it be all those things at once?_

Grabbing her wand, Lily suspended the envelope over her bed and muttered 'Diffindo!'

The envelope was slived neatly at the top, then a rain of shimmering miniature stars and moons burst from it, twinkling and playing sweet orchestrated music that caused Mary across the room to groan and roll over in bed.

As the stars formed constellations above her head, Lily prodded the envelope with her wand, and a piece of parchment leapt out and unfolded itself.

_Dearest Lily,_

_Might I enquire as to whether or not you will take a belated afternoon tea with me on Tuesday at 3pm? (I would, of course, ask you today, but I have only just awoken, and it is currently 3:45pm and I think we deserve tomorrow off, and unfortunately, it's Quidditch on Monday and from 6am-1.20pm tomorrow, as we've a big match that we are in no way prepared for coming up)._

_All my love,_

_James_

Lily smiled as the constellations suddenly whooshed up to the ceiling and stuck there, twinkling down at her. Lily clutched the sweet little note to her heart, vaguely wondering about how long it took James to compose it in such a formal fashion, then placed it tenderly on her bedside table and leapt out of bed.

She suddenly fancied a stroll around the lake, and, changing into some jeans and a blazer her mother had forced her to take, she knew there was nothing anyone could do to stop her.

After a very relaxed day, Lily decided to reply to James's note, and that she should also match his well-chosen and formal style.

_To my dearest James,_

_I would like to offer my sincerest thanks for such an enjoyable letter. _

_I must admit there is nothing I would like more than to attend tea with you. I shall arrive at 3pm at the old Beech tree skirting the Lake._

_All the very best wishes and luck for your upcoming Quidditch match-of course I have complete faith in you all, but one can never have too much support!_

_Much love,_

_Lily_

With a quick spell, Lily made the parchment smell like vanilla, and the envelope like caramel, thenshe sealed the envelope, realized she'd forgotten to put the parchment _into _the envelope, found and enchanted another envelope, placed the parchment in it and sealed it up. Then, feeling slightly irritated, Lily made her way up to the Owlery.

She didn't quite know why, when she could have handed the letter to James (in fact, she passed him in the Common Room as she walked to the Owlery) but she had a feeling she should go to the Owlery, and besides, it felt more anonymous and, well, _romantic_ to send it by owl.

She was just attaching the letter to a small white Snowy Owl's leg when a female voice behind her said 'Oh hello Lily,' causing Lily to gasp, drop the letter and slip over, landing in the remains of a half-disembowelled rat.

Looking up, Lily saw none other than Jasmine Darwood staring down at her, a small smile playing at her mouth as she leant down to help Lily up, 'That scary am I?'

'Oh no, I-I thought I was the only person up here,' said Lily, straightening up and brushing herself off.

'Here,' said Jasmine, waving her wand, 'Nobody wants rat guts in their hair.'

'Oh right-thanks. So…why are you up here?'

'Writing to my sister. She decided to go to Beauxbatons, even though her French leaves much to be desired.'

Lily laughed, 'Sure it's better than mine…the extent of my French is "oui" and "Oo la la madam!"'

Jasmine smiled as she attached her letter to a tawny owl, which then flew off into the bright blue sky.

'Aren't you going to send your letter?' asked Jasmine, turning around.

'Oh, right,' Lily quickly tied the letter onto the owl's leg more securely, then sent it off, still trying to word what she was about to say.

'Um, Jasmine?' she said, as the blonde girl made her way for the Owlery door, 'could I just talk to you for a minute?'

'Yeah sure, what is it?'

'Well, it's about Remus,' said Lily.

'Oh really, what about him?' Jasmine's face was curious.

'I-um, well…I was…I told him I'd tell you…have you noticed how Remus is ill every month?'

'Yes, why?'

'It's because he…he's…he um, well…'

'I already know he's a werewolf if that's what you mean Lily. He told me the other day, and besides, I'd figured it out already.'

Lily's eyebrows shot up her face.

'Well, it's not _that_ hard to figure out,' said Jasmine, smiling.

'And-and you don't mind? What did you say? Or have you stopped seeing him-? Oh please don't tell anyone, he'd die if it were to get out-'

'Tell anyone? No of course not, I wouldn't tell anyone. As for seeing him, of course I'm still seeing him-we're having lunch tomorrow at the Three Broomsticks, in fact.'

'Well I-it's just that not many people will accept him,' said Lily, 'He thought it amazing that _I _didn't mind when I figured it out, so I'm sure he'll be over the moon-no pun intended!-that you don't judge him for his condition.'

'Lily,' said Jasmine, putting her arm around Lily's shoulder as they walked down the Owlery stairs, 'to love someone, you must accept them fully, and I completely accept Remus, fangs and all. There's nothing I'd change about him…except maybe how much he puts himself down, but I'll solve that.'

And, united, the two girls walked down to lunch together, talking about Remus, and James, about boys, about life, about school and exams and how many languages one person would be able to speak without going mad and thinking in mashed up thoughts of French/German/Russian/English/Chinese/Danish/Korea n/Indian/African/Greek/Italian/Nepalese/Latin/Flem ish.

The days rolled blissfully by. Lily spent her time laughing with her friends, discussing life, the universe and everything, gossiping with them, losing at wizard's chess, watching James's Quidditch practice, then walking back with him, hand-in-hand.

Remus, now fully materialized, was now the happiest person she knew (Jasmine had assured Lily she would tell Remus that she knew he was affected with lycanthropy, and, judging by the fact that both of them now spent most waking hours together, laughing and sharing and totally in love, she assumed it had been successful), especially after he, Lily, Peter, Jenny and Jasmine had all teased Sirius relentlessly for several days as payback-James was too fiercely loyal to Sirius, to join in, and Mary was too busy with Jason, her new boyfriend, to care).

Lily felt so glad that the exams were over. Now all she had to worry about in the way of school work was her Head Girl duties, and most of her patrols just consisted of a very happy Lily and an even more so James wandering the corridors together, trying to come up with things to talk about.

The tea on Tuesday was very sweet, next to the lake, yet tucked away from the prying eyes of the inhabitants of the Castle.

That Friday Lily took James exploring in the Forbidden Forest, but they ran into Hagrid, trying to train, well, impossible as it seemed _invisible _creatures, and they ended up just wandering aimlessly around the grounds wondering what sort of creatures they were.

Over the weekend James had scheduled all-day Quidditch practices, which Lily said she wouldn't come and watch as she'd tried that already, and it was worthless unless you wanted to be frozen to the bench and bored out of your mind…no offence James.

'But _please _Lily, just once more! I promise, I've got a plan-I want to show you something afterwards!'

Lily's raised her eyebrows at her wide-eyed boyfriend, his hands clasped as he begged her, on his knees in front of her.

'Um, tempting as that offer is, no thanks.'

'PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAASSSSEEE?' he whined.

'James, sshh!' said Lily, glancing around the Common Room, which had gone suddenly quiet.

'I'll only be quiet if you'll come.'

'But I can't just-'

'**PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE**-!'

'Alright alright!' she hissed, 'but I'll only come down when you're about to finish, and not before!'

'Thanks Lily,' said James, standing up and shaking her hand, 'good to do business with you.'

'Blackmail more like,' muttered Lily as James skipped up the stairs to the Boys' Dormitory.

So, yet again, Lily found herself frozen to the benches around the Quidditch stadium, wishing she was in the warmth of the Common Room.

Typically, James had given her the wrong time for the end of Quidditch practice, so Lily was reduced to waiting, like a bored damsel in distress while her Quidditch-playing prince zoomed happily around the pitch. Lily scowled.

She'd wanted to be part of the Quidditch team. She had planned to since she was in Second Year-no use just sitting uselessly on the sidelines she'd figured, why not go in and play? Except, of course, for the fact that-

'Hey Lily, you came!' cried James's voice, interrupting Lily's thoughts.

Lily only had enough time to look up, scream and duck as James and his broom came hurtling towards her.

'JAMES POTTER-!'

'Look, I'm pleased to see you too Lily, but there's no need to get too overexcited!' James grinned evilly, hovering just above her head, unscathed.

Looking down to the pitch, Lily saw the rest of the team trudging across to the Changing Rooms.

'So your practice is finally over, you evil git?'

James put on an expression of deep hurt, 'How was _I _to know we'd go over time! Lily I didn't want you to be LATE!'

Lily scowled, 'I had to wait for fifteen minutes when you promised you'd been completely finished!'

'Yeah well,' said James, dismounting his broom and helping her up, 'I lied.'

He led her down to the pitch, by which time the rest of the team was heading up to the Castle. The light was fading fast, and Lily began to wish James would cut to the chase rather than just standing in the middle of the Quidditch pitch, smiling.

'What, James?' Lily snapped, 'What's going on? WHY did you bring me here, tell me what's going on!'

'You, my dear Lily-petal, are going to learn to fly!'

Lily's face drained of all colour. 'N-no I'm not. You can't make me fly-I don't have to, I-'

'_Accio broomstick!'_

Lily almost fell over backwards as the broom found its way to James's hand.

'Here's your mighty steed, now lay it on the ground and say 'UP!' This way your broom will learn that you're the boss.'

'No, James I can't.'

James's face, slightly in shadow owing to the gathering darkness, gained a frown.

'Why not?'

'I-' should she trust him? Would he laugh?

'What?'

'I-I'm afraid of heights.'

There was a silence.

'Really?'

'Yes. I've always been terrified of brooms-what if it threw me?'

'Oh…well I guess everyone's afraid of something. I myself am afraid of many things.'

'Oh really, such as?'

'Snakes…I'm afraid of loss…I'm especially afraid of you,' he said, rather embarrassed.

'ME? Why am I scary? I mean, I know my own mind and if people mess with me-'

'Not like that,' said James, 'I'm afraid of you…if you didn't like me anymore. I'm afraid we'd go back to how we once were. Hating each other. And that I really couldn't stand.'

Lily's heart fluttered, and, smiling, she reached up and kissed him.

They headed up for the castle together, hand-in-hand, in silence. Then, half-way up the lawns, James broke the silence by saying, 'Oh yeah, and I'm afraid of that stuff muggles call sunscreen.'

Lily's eyebrows shot up into her hairline, and she yet again found herself questioning James's sanity.


	20. Chapter 20: Love Undone

**Here's another update. Please note there will be gaps between the next few...there are only about 2, 3, maybe 4 if you're lucky, chapters to go! So Im determined to make them good. Make them count.**

**Enjoy. **

**I have spent the majority of my week and weekend editing the story, and this will continue. I very much hope Lily does not appear "stupid". I feel my writing was influenced by films-you know in a film how YOU notice something but the character doesn't and you keep saying 'oh my god you idiot-SHE'S THE ONE WHO'S EVIL: NOTICE IT WOULD YOU?' because the camera shows you things that the characters don't notice. I've realized that that is how I've been writing-in first person but with a 'camera' view so it points things out that are obvious to the audience but not the character. And that does not work so well when writing a story.**

* * *

Chapter 21

The Undeniable Truth

She still wouldn't talk to him. Weeks had passed. Hundreds of notes had been passed, and ignored, and many messages and messengers sent away with singed eyebrows.

James refused to give in, determined to prove his innocence, yet Lily was just as determined never to look at him again.

She made sure to sit as far away from him as possible at meal times and in lessons. She never made eye contact or conversation, and avoided the Marauders at all cost.

Lily felt betrayed and alone, tricked, a fool, and she felt she hadn't really known James at all.

'Lily?'

She looked up, and saw Jasmine's concerned face.

'Are you okay?'

'I-' Lily considered her answer, but her lip began trembling and tears began to overwhelm her, 'Oh Jasmine of course not! I just found out that James has been sneaking around and trying to watch poor innocent girls having a bath! How could I be okay?'

Jasmine sat down on the grass next to her and gave Lily a hug.

After a while, Jasmine said quietly, 'You know, Remus told me what happened, and I don't think you know the whole story-'

'I do NOT want to hear James's PATHETIC LIES! Can't people just accept that he's a lying, cheating, horrible little _scumbag?!'_

'Well Lily, he has evidence, a witness-'

'Jasmine, just because James Potter can bully younger kids or _flirt_-' she spat the word out like it was poisonous, 'with other girls to make them say things that back up his case does not mean he's telling the truth.'

Lily leapt up and marched away, leaving Jasmine sitting on the edge of the lake.

'Well, to be honest,' muttered Jasmine, 'I doubt he could bully McGonagall…and if he tried to flirt with her he'd already be on the train home, completely covered in bandages.'

Lily enjoyed lessons. They helped to take her mind off things. The regular homework and essays kept her busy, but not unhappy, and whenever things got bad, Lily could talk to Slughorn, or sneak into the Room of Requirement and prepare a Sleeping Draught that would prevent her (now regular) nightmares.

She could almost forget about her troubles if she concentrated solely on homework and avoided any contact with anyone else.

She would dodge her friends, The Marauders and James at all cost, which often meant she was late, or had to start the day ridiculously early. But for Lily, it was worth it.

It was now more than a week after that fateful day in the Prefects' Bathroom, and Lily was sitting at the Gryffindor table at dinner, listening to Dumbledore's speech, as far away from anyone her own age as possible, trying to not listen to her neighbours' conversations about bogies and First-Year humour.

'And, according to tradition, Hogwarts will be holding a special Ball for the Seventh Years only, to celebrate these wonderful young people,' said Dumbledore, 'But there will be further discussion of that later. Off to bed everybody-pip-pip!'

There was the mass scraping of benches, then the avalanche of students making their way from the Great Hall. Lily waited until she was more or less at the back of the crowd before stepping over the Gryffindor bench and (making sure not to be seen by her friends or the Marauders) slipping into the mass of black robes.

'Hey Lily!'

Lily almost had a heart attack. She turned around to see none other than Adam Gerdal.

Lily breathed out a tense sigh, 'Phew…hi Adam.'

'Hi, uh, um, Lily I was just wondering if you'd go to the ball with me.'

Lily blinked, taken aback. This was entirely unexpected. Before she could think or plan or even consider what to say, she found her mouth, totally of its own accord, forming the words, 'Um, yeah sure, I guess.'

'Great!' said Adam, 'see you then then…then…um…'bye!'

Totally shocked by what she, _her, Lily Evans, _had just said, Lily walked up the marble staircase and along one of the many corridors. She'd just agreed to go to the ball with _Adam Gerdal!_ What was wrong with her? Mirabelle had said something in passing about not liking him anymore, but still! Even though she hated James entirely, she had hoped to be asked by someone else…maybe just to tag along with her friends…dance with _Peter, _even.

Contemplating what a strange turn of events the evening had taken, and planning her Transfiguration essay on turning oneself into an animal, Lily didn't notice somebody shadowing her movements, until, all of a sudden, someone grabbed her roughly from behind, threw something over her and a hand was slipped over her mouth.

But she could still see. Despite feeling some kind of cloth covering her she could still see.

Lily tried to kick and scream as she was dragged backwards, but nobody of the hundreds of students now pouring up to bed seemed to notice.

Lily struggled, writhing and attempting to scream and trying to bite the hands across her mouth, but to no avail.

She found herself dragged into a disused classroom. That was the last thing she saw before there was a _BANG!_ and a black cloth obscured her vision.

Someone picked her up by her shoulders and placed her on what felt like a chair, and pulled off the strange watery-airlike material thing that was covering her. Then with a muttered incantation, Lily could feel bonds suddenly tie her to the chair, and some sort of scarf or piece of material wrapped itself around her mouth.

There was a shuffling, and a voice, deep, gruff, yet somehow not-quite-right said, 'Careful-this one's feisty.'

Lily desperately twisted her head to and fro, trying to figure out where the noise had come from.

_KIDNAPPERS?! Here, at Hogwarts? What was going on?_

'So what're we gonna do with you, eh?' came a different voice, also harsh yet somehow alien…

'Can I hiths her bosth?' lisped a voice to Lily's right.

'Go on you mis'rable creature.'

There was a loud _SMACK!_ next to Lily's ear, so sudden it made her head whip the other way in shock. But she felt no pain, or indeed, no contact…

'Don't hurt her!' cried a voice.

'Shut up Prongs!' hissed another. _Were there more people tied up? She could have sworn that was-_

'Sirius now you've given the game away!'

'As if you didn't just then, saying my name aloud!'

'Would you all just shut up?'

'I will when you will, _Mary_.'

'Sirius, don't be such a pig!'

'Jenny, don't be such a bore!'

'WOULD YOU ALL JUST _SHUT IT?!_' Lily had never heard Mary so angry. 'I don't care how much any of you want to play kidnappers and mafia and robbers and all that rubbish-just leave the goddamned food and leave them alone!'

There was a mumble of agreement, and there was the sound of a heavy bag being dropped onto the floor.

'Put them closer!'

There was a scraping of chairs and Lily was moved forward, then repositioned, shifted to the left, then everyone seemed to be traipsing out of the room. Just before the door snapped shut, she heard someone say _'Defluo,'_ and the piece of material covering her eyes slipped gently from her face, and Lily could feel it sliding away, _flowing _before all of a sudden, it wasn't there at all.

Lily blinked. It took her a while to regain her vision. When she had, she saw that she was still sitting in a disused classroom, tied to a chair…facing none other than James Potter.

Lily glared at him.

Half of her brain couldn't help but notice that the gag looked rather like a dashing robbers' disguise on him, making him look kind of, sort of, cute, like in an old cowboy movie.

'Lily-'

She gave him her most withering death stare. Even muffled by the gag, his voice was piercingly familiar.

There was a pause. About a minute later, James gushed, 'Evans I kno' yer upset wiv me-an' you hav ev'ry righ': wha' you heard an' saw w's unaccep'able. Butyouneedtoletmeexplain.'

Lily sighed.

'Look,' she said, her words slurred by the gag, 'Wo' if we ge' ourselves outta tha gags 'n' bonds. Th'n maybe w'll talk.'

James nodded, gazing at her, a tender light in those eyes that she longed to believe…

'M'wand's inmy pocket!' Lily lisped excitedly.

'R'ly?!'

'Mmhm! Sh'ffle ova here…'

Awkwardly they both tried to shuffle their chairs towards each other, dragging the chair legs against the ground and trying to hop while sitting on the chairs. Then James found he could stand when stooped over, and managed, by doing a strange, crab-like walk, to get his chair next to Lily's.

'Righ', my wan's in my back pocke'.'

James raised his eyebrows. 'Oh grea'…'

Standing up as tall as he could, he walked backwards until his hand (strapped to the chair) was level with Lily's chair, and shuffling closer to her, he reached behind her and carefully eased her wand from her back pocket.

'Canyou undo th' ropes?' she asked.

James pointed her wand at her gag and muttered, ''Elashio!'

Unfortunately, because he was gagged, the spell did not come out quite right, and the gag ended up tightening around Lily's mouth rather than releasing it.

She glared. Then she stood up, bent over, and said ''ow 'ere's 'our 'and?'

'I' my sock!'

Lily raised her eyebrows. She could still feel the gag cutting into her mouth, and couldn't speak, but shuffled over toward James's foot, and, finding the right one, eased his wand out of his sock, careful not to fall over, then she sighed and let herself rock backward. Unfortunately, with rather too much momentum, the chair ended up rocking all the way backward, and falling over.

'We'w done,' muttered James.

'_Di'indo,' _she said as clearly as possible. A deep gash appeared on James's right arm, and Lily felt a spark of satisfaction.

'UUUUHHHNNG!' James cried out in pain.

Lily screwed up her face and said, pointing James's wand at the bonds, _'Di…fin…do!'_

The ropes fell off, severed, and James leapt up and helped to untie her and lift her off the floor.

Unable to properly say the spell, Lily had to get James to turn around so she could carefully undo his gag. It then took James about five minutes to get hers off, muttering, 'Sorry…ow-this is a really hard knot to undo!'

Finally they stood there, both untied, stretching themselves. 'How do we get out?' asked James.

Lily walked towards the door, 'Alohamora.' She tried the door handle. Nothing.

Taking a run-up, Lily ran at the door, threw herself at it, trying to get it to move, open…

'HELP!' she cried.

James joined in. 'HELP! HELP! We're stuck in a classroom! PLEASE…_SOMEBODY HELP US!'_

It was no use.

'I think they put a Silencing Charm on the door…' muttered James.

'God damnit!' muttered Lily angrily, 'I can't believe them! They set us up! For the second time. First Mary and Jenny tell me you're dead so I convince myself I actually like you, _then_, even after you've been perving on girls having their baths, they join up with Sirius and lock me in a bloody classroom with you! I'm going to KILL them!'

'Maybe they think I have a good explanation,' said James bitterly.

'Yeah well guess what? They're wrong,' Lily cried, 'You've caused more problems than you're worth James Potter! I don't want to listen to you now, or ever!'

'Right.' There was a silence, 'Well, let's look at this food,' said James with a false cheeriness, picking up the large sack in the middle of the classroom.

He pulled out several pots containing sandwiches, two slices of pie and a small amount of apple crumble. James laid them out on the floor, then proceeded to pull out a large bottle of water and a quilt.

Lily glared. 'Where's my blanket, may I ask?'

James tipped the empty bag upside down, 'There's only one.'

'Oh, and of course _you_ get it!'

'Actually I was going to suggest we sha-'

'_No way!_ I am not sleeping within ten feet of you!' She snatched the blanket from him, and pulling her wand from her pocket, carefully traced a line down the middle, ripping it in half. The two halves were painfully small. Without a second glance, Lily threw one of the pieces at him and walked to the other end of the room, where she proceeded to light a fire using her wand (and making sure to fire-proof the furniture and the room with a single incantation before lighting it).

The night had turned cold, and rain streaked the window. Lily was glad of her fire now, and tried to wrap herself in the tiny strip of the quilt.

She could hear James rolling around on the floor, no doubt trying to get comfortable.

'Lily?'

'What?' she answered tersely.

'C-could you sh-sh-sh-share the fire, it's kinda cold…'

'Can't you conjure up your own fire? You're in Seventh Year.'

'Yeah,' said James, 'But I never learnt how to fire-proof stuff.'

She sat up and looked over at him.

He was curled up in a ball, the thin piece of quilt draped over him, shivering like crazy.

With a sigh, Lily extinguished her fire then muttered '_Incendio Probationem!'_ The rest of the room which she hadn't fireproofed before gained a sudden glossy sheen, and then Lily, satisfied, muttered, '_Incendio!' _and a cheery fire sprung up in the middle of the room.

James huddled around it, warming his hands.

'Thanks Lily.'

'Hm,' she muttered.

There was a silence, punctuated by the crackling of the fire.

Lily found she couldn't lay down, so sat up, pulling the strip of blanket around her shoulders.

'Shall we share the food? I'm kind of hungry,' said James.

'Fine,' said Lily, who hadn't eaten that much dinner, and in all truth was quite ravenous.

There was only one spoon, so, after demolishing the pie and sandwiches using their fingers, they were forced to share one spoon as they ate the apple crumble, with was rather awkward for both of them.

Then they sat there, on either side of the campfire for hours, in complete silence. Lily heard her watch ticking…ten o'clock…twelve o'clock…one in the morning…two thirty…

'Lily.'

She looked up, stifling a yawn.

'Please, _please_ let me explain. You don't have to believe me-even though I'd really like you to, but you do have to hear my side of the story. PLEASE. You can even ask Professor McGonagall-she'll back me up.'

Lily stared. There was a long, static silence. The atmosphere between them was thick with emotion.

Finally Lily sniffed disdainfully and said, 'Alright then, you can explain. But if your story doesn't match up to that of Professor McGonagall's then I _swear_…'

'I know. Thank you.' He said simply. 'Well, it was that night when you'd just refused to come and prank the Slytherins with us, and we were making our way along the corridors. We managed to sneak down to the Entrance Hall when we heard someone coming. I quickly put the Invisibility Cloak over the others, figuring I was Head Boy, and less likely to look suspicious. Turns out it was Professor McGonagall, looking for you.'

'For me?'

'That's what I just said. Anyway, she said she couldn't find you anywhere, and could I please help to look for a Fifth year girl who'd gone missing a couple of days ago and hadn't been seen since. Apparently they'd looked everywhere, and they wanted me to check up on the fifth floor. When I got up there I looked in every room except the girls' bathroom-'

'That's not what it looked like to me!'

'Please, just let me finish.' Lily was silent. 'Then I heard noises. Splashing, and then a sudden burst of water, and strange, underwater sounds. So I decided to investigate. I asked the portrait outside who was in the bathroom, but he wouldn't answer, said something about no-one being in there, and then something about his wife and a lunatic asylum.'

'Brutus doesn't have a wife!' said Lily, 'you're lying!'

'No-honestly I'm not…I swear that painting's just _weird_. I mean honestly-he kept forgetting I'd approached at all, asked where I'd come from.

'Then I went in, with my back turned to the bath and asked that rude painting of the mermaid who was in there. She wouldn't tell me who it was, so I had to ask all sorts of questions, but she wouldn't answer me. Then she told me to leave, and I asked her if the person in there was drowning. She told me no, so I went to leave. Then you appeared.

'I didn't know what to say-I was so shocked to see you there, and I was wondering about all the sounds I'd heard, I just froze up. Then I went and told Professor McGonagall that I hadn't found the Fifth Year, and it turned out the stupid girl had got herself lost in the Forbidden Forest and chased out by the Centaurs. Hagrid ended up saving her. Apparently she was still gibbering on about giant spiders and strange salamander-like creatures. McGonagall says she's till in the Hospital Wing, recovering from "intense shock, lack of food and severe scratches". Ask her. Ask McGonagall too, and the portrait-guy with amnesia. Just ask. Please.'

Lily grimaced, 'I'll question them, don't you worry. But don't think you're forgiven James.'

And, ten thousand questions racing around in her head, Lily lay down and rolled over. But sleep was far from her mind.

It was 8:37am on the dot when the others let them out. Lily extinguished the fire while James shoved the empty pots and the spoon into the food bag. Lily then collected the two pieces of the blanket and their friends found the heavy bag and the halved blanket shoved roughly into their hands.

Lily and James both left the room and went in the opposite directions.

'Sooo…' said Ellie, breaking the uncomfortable silence, 'I'm guessing that's a sign it didn't go so fantastically well.'

'What is it Miss Evans?' asked Professor McGonagall shortly, 'I'm sorry but I don't have all day!'

'Well I was just wondering…a little while ago, did a Fifth Year go missing?'

'Yes, Miss Elfrage. Why do you ask?'

'And did you send James to the Fifth Floor corridor to look for her?' persisted Lily.

'Yes, and, as I had just been called away to stop two Sixth-Years duelling I had to send him into the Prefects' Bathroom, as I could not find you, Miss Evans, and Miss Elfrage, though not a Prefect, is apparently very fond of bathing there.'

Lily stared. James was right.

Still, she couldn't help making her way to the hospital wing to check with this Miss Elfrage, just to be sure.

By the end of the day though, Lily wasn't having much luck convincing herself that James was lying-she had spoken to McGonagall, Jessie Elfrage, the paintings of Brutus and Delta, and several other paintings on the Fifth Floor Corridor-even Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, and so far all of them had only held evidence of his innocence.

She went to be wondering.

As chatter about the Seventh Years' ball became more pronounced, Lily found herself worrying. Her friends must have picked this up, because, while they were all out in the courtyard and the others were discussing with Jasmine what sort of theme the ball would have (Professor McGonagall had told them this morning it would be announced by the end of the week), Jeannie asked, 'Lily, are you okay? You look really distant.'

'You ALWAYS do when we discuss the ball,' said Mirabelle.

'Why is that?' asked Ellie.

'Spill,' Mary added.

'Yeah, spill your guts,' said Jasmine.

There was a slight pause, 'Y-yea…th-dj…yeah, what they said!' said Jenny in a rush.

'No it's just…I can't dance!'

'What!'

'As _if!'_

'Everyone can dance!'

'Well I can't-so does that make me no-one then? I've never learned…I've never tried…'

'I used to do swing dancing,' said Mary, 'I'm sure I could teach you some basic steps.'

'That's sweet Mary, but to be honest, the last thing I want is you seeing how incompetent I really am.'

'Lily,' Jenny said softly.

'No really, I mean it. So, to be honest, I think I'll just stand on the sidelines of the ball.'

'You can't do that!'

'Actually it's better than what _I _thought you were going to say,' said Jasmine, 'I thought you'd say you weren't going under any circumstance.'

Ellie grinned, 'Gotta be honest, I thought that too.'

'Well I sort of have to go…' Lily trailed off. The girls closed in like a hungry wolf-pack.

'Tell! Tell! Tell! Tell! Tell! Tell! TELL!'

'Who asked you?'

'Who're you going with?'

'Was it James?'

'You've forgiven him? I bet she has!'

'No I bloody well have NOT forgiven James!' said Lily loudly, realizing too late that the entire courtyard had gone silent, and, even worse, the Marauders were all making their way past them on the outside of the courtyard, and therefore had most probably heard every single word they had said.

Lily quickly turned her back to them.

The others waited until the Marauders were gone, and everyone else in the courtyard had resumed their chatting.

They lowered their voices to a whisper.

'So, who asked you?'

'Adam Gerdal.'

The others looked shocked.

'Adam?'

'Gerdal?!'

'You're _serious?_'

'The SHADOW boy?'

'You didn't say yes did you?'

'Well, I…'

'He's a creep!' said Mirabelle hotly.

'Well-I didn't mean to say yes-it was just after dinner, right before you guys _locked me in a classroom_,' she said with venom, glaring.

'Lily, _come on!_ We've already apologised for that!'

'-and I was so surprised that I said yes before I could think…oh god, what am I going to do?'

'NOW it hits her?'

'You could always say you'd promised to go with someone else!'

'What if he asks who?'

'Just say "a Seventh Year, you wouldn't know him,"' said Jeannie, helpful as always.

'But what reason would I give for saying yes to him if someone'd already asked me?'

'You say you forgot!'

'But it might hurt his feelings!' she said sadly.

'Are we sure he HAS feelings?'

'JENNY!' said Lily, 'Don't be so horrid!'

'Okay, okay, okay. But tonight, you'll tell him you can't go with him.'

'Alright.'

'Hi Adam.'

'Oh hi Lily. You all set for the ball? It's going to be so cool!'

'Yeah, about that-I was just going to tell you, I'm-'

'I can't wait 'til we find out the theme,' Adam rambled, and Lily had a feeling it was on purpose that he wouldn't let her speak. 'Apparently last year it was Georgian-period fashion and décor. Everyone had to wear these crazy wigs…'

'Adam there's…something I need to talk to you about.'

'Yes?' he asked, eyes wide.

_How could she do this? Back out? She'd got his hopes up-she couldn't just take back her word…it would be really cruel._

'I was…just wondering if we could do our costume shopping separately-you know, make it a big surprise…a grand unveiling I guess.'

'Oh-sure! That'd be great. You're full of great ideas Lily. For a moment there I thought you were about to…oh well, see you at the ball!'

He leaned up to kiss her cheek, but, pretending not to realize, she turned her head to look out the window, 'Oh look! You can see the Giant Squid from up here! Oh, look at the time-gotta go Adam, see you at the ball!'

She did her best not to run, but managed to slow herself to a speed-walk, and left wondering desperately how she would tell the girls, still gathered in the library.

'LILY!'

'Ssssshhh!'

'Why do you have to be so kind?!' said Mary, exasperated.

'But he looked so sad!'

'It's all a ploy,' said Jenny firmly.

'I agree,' Jeannie added, 'talking excitedly non-stop when you were about to say something…suspicious. He's up to something!'

'Come on guys, cheer up!'

'How _can _we cheer up?' wailed Ellie, 'Our Lily is condemned to having her feet trodden on by Adam Gerdal!'

'SSSSSHHHHH!'

'What will you do now?' asked Jasmine.

'What do you mean?'

'I mean what will you tell James when he asks you?'

'Go away and leave me alone!' she cried, 'You have the nerve to even ask me to the ball after all you've done?'

'No actually,' came the sarcastic reply, 'I just wanted to see what it was like to finally be rejected by a girl. Gotta admit it kinda sucks if they're all as bad-mannered and grumpy as you.'

'Just shut up and leave me alone Sirius!'

It had been quite obvious from the moment he walked up to her after potions, that Sirius Black had no intention of actually asking her to the ball, just of pushing her buttons until she exploded. And he was doing a very good job.

'Poor James. You treat him like this every time he asks you out too?'

'It's none of your business Black, now stop following me around!'

'Oh Lily, Lily, Lily, you're the sweetest flower I've ever met.'

Lily was not overly proud of what she did next. But it took Sirius a very long time to get the singed smell out of his beloved hair.

Lily was silent during Ancient Runes, musing her fate: what could she say to Adam? She couldn't really do much about it all now…

'Lily are you okay?' asked Remus, seated next to her, 'You're very preoccupied this lesson.'

'Oh no it's just…I'm just worrying about the ball.'

'Oh? Why?'

'It's just that…I can't dance.'

'Really?'

'Good, 'cause no-one will ask you to,' said Sirius irritably, listening in on their conversation from behind, his hair still smoking slightly.

Lily didn't even need to glare at him: Jenny, Mary, Ellie, Remus, James, Jasmine and even Peter did it for her. (All the Seventh Years were now required to attend every class in Hogwarts's curriculum or the last few weeks of their schooling, to maximize their learning: the time tables had been reshuffled, so instead of having two Potions lessons in a week, they would have one Potions Lesson and one Muggle Studies lesson; one Defence Against the Dark Arts and one Divination class and so on and so forth.)

'Okay, okay!' said Sirius, seeming to shrink under the close scrutiny,

'Why don't you ask Slughorn Lily?' suggested Remus, 'He probably went to heaps of dances when he was young-'

'-and dinosaurs roamed the earth…'

'Shut up Padfoot. But anyway, you're his favourite pupil. I'm sure he'll give you advice!'

'Perfect,' said Lily, 'We have Potions with the Hufflepuffs next. I'll just make a brilliant potion, and he'll practically beg to help me!' Lily grinned, 'Thanks Remus!'

'Practice m'dear, that's all I can tell you. Practice every day you can if you want to be good. Find somewhere you can go each day after lessons.'

'Thank you Professor Slughorn.'

'No trouble m'dear-oh, and Lily?' he said, handing her a familiar scroll tied with a purple ribbon, 'the hard-working Seventh Year can finally return to the Club. I look forward to seeing you there again-Mr Brendal has been getting too big for his own boots,' said Slughorn with a wink, 'I think it's time you were there to give him a helping hand.'

Grinning, Lily skipped from the dungeons, planning her dance schedule.

Somewhere to practice? _Hm…the Room of Requirement!_


	21. Chapter 22: The Undeniable Truth

**Here's another update. Please note there will be gaps between the next few...there are only about 2, 3, maybe 4 if you're lucky, chapters to go! So Im determined to make them good. Make them count.**

**Enjoy. **

**I have spent the majority of my week and weekend editing the story, and this will continue. I very much hope Lily does not appear "stupid". I feel my writing was influenced by films-you know in a film how YOU notice something but the character doesn't and you keep saying 'oh my god you idiot-SHE'S THE ONE WHO'S EVIL: NOTICE IT WOULD YOU?' because the camera shows you things that the characters don't notice. I've realized that that is how I've been writing-in first person but with a 'camera' view so it points things out that are obvious to the audience but not the character. And that does not work so well when writing a story.**

* * *

Chapter 21

The Undeniable Truth

She still wouldn't talk to him. Weeks had passed. Hundreds of notes had been passed, and ignored, and many messages and messengers sent away with singed eyebrows.

James refused to give in, determined to prove his innocence, yet Lily was just as determined never to look at him again.

She made sure to sit as far away from him as possible at meal times and in lessons. She never made eye contact or conversation, and avoided the Marauders at all cost.

Lily felt betrayed and alone, tricked, a fool, and she felt she hadn't really known James at all.

'Lily?'

She looked up, and saw Jasmine's concerned face.

'Are you okay?'

'I-' Lily considered her answer, but her lip began trembling and tears began to overwhelm her, 'Oh Jasmine of course not! I just found out that James has been sneaking around and trying to watch poor innocent girls having a bath! How could I be okay?'

Jasmine sat down on the grass next to her and gave Lily a hug.

After a while, Jasmine said quietly, 'You know, Remus told me what happened, and I don't think you know the whole story-'

'I do NOT want to hear James's PATHETIC LIES! Can't people just accept that he's a lying, cheating, horrible little _scumbag?!'_

'Well Lily, he has evidence, a witness-'

'Jasmine, just because James Potter can bully younger kids or _flirt_-' she spat the word out like it was poisonous, 'with other girls to make them say things that back up his case does not mean he's telling the truth.'

Lily leapt up and marched away, leaving Jasmine sitting on the edge of the lake.

'Well, to be honest,' muttered Jasmine, 'I doubt he could bully McGonagall…and if he tried to flirt with her he'd already be on the train home, completely covered in bandages.'

Lily enjoyed lessons. They helped to take her mind off things. The regular homework and essays kept her busy, but not unhappy, and whenever things got bad, Lily could talk to Slughorn, or sneak into the Room of Requirement and prepare a Sleeping Draught that would prevent her (now regular) nightmares.

She could almost forget about her troubles if she concentrated solely on homework and avoided any contact with anyone else.

She would dodge her friends, The Marauders and James at all cost, which often meant she was late, or had to start the day ridiculously early. But for Lily, it was worth it.

It was now more than a week after that fateful day in the Prefects' Bathroom, and Lily was sitting at the Gryffindor table at dinner, listening to Dumbledore's speech, as far away from anyone her own age as possible, trying to not listen to her neighbours' conversations about bogies and First-Year humour.

'And, according to tradition, Hogwarts will be holding a special Ball for the Seventh Years only, to celebrate these wonderful young people,' said Dumbledore, 'But there will be further discussion of that later. Off to bed everybody-pip-pip!'

There was the mass scraping of benches, then the avalanche of students making their way from the Great Hall. Lily waited until she was more or less at the back of the crowd before stepping over the Gryffindor bench and (making sure not to be seen by her friends or the Marauders) slipping into the mass of black robes.

'Hey Lily!'

Lily almost had a heart attack. She turned around to see none other than Adam Gerdal.

Lily breathed out a tense sigh, 'Phew…hi Adam.'

'Hi, uh, um, Lily I was just wondering if you'd go to the ball with me.'

Lily blinked, taken aback. This was entirely unexpected. Before she could think or plan or even consider what to say, she found her mouth, totally of its own accord, forming the words, 'Um, yeah sure, I guess.'

'Great!' said Adam, 'see you then then…then…um…'bye!'

Totally shocked by what she, _her, Lily Evans, _had just said, Lily walked up the marble staircase and along one of the many corridors. She'd just agreed to go to the ball with _Adam Gerdal!_ What was wrong with her? Mirabelle had said something in passing about not liking him anymore, but still! Even though she hated James entirely, she had hoped to be asked by someone else…maybe just to tag along with her friends…dance with _Peter, _even.

Contemplating what a strange turn of events the evening had taken, and planning her Transfiguration essay on turning oneself into an animal, Lily didn't notice somebody shadowing her movements, until, all of a sudden, someone grabbed her roughly from behind, threw something over her and a hand was slipped over her mouth.

But she could still see. Despite feeling some kind of cloth covering her she could still see.

Lily tried to kick and scream as she was dragged backwards, but nobody of the hundreds of students now pouring up to bed seemed to notice.

Lily struggled, writhing and attempting to scream and trying to bite the hands across her mouth, but to no avail.

She found herself dragged into a disused classroom. That was the last thing she saw before there was a _BANG!_ and a black cloth obscured her vision.

Someone picked her up by her shoulders and placed her on what felt like a chair, and pulled off the strange watery-airlike material thing that was covering her. Then with a muttered incantation, Lily could feel bonds suddenly tie her to the chair, and some sort of scarf or piece of material wrapped itself around her mouth.

There was a shuffling, and a voice, deep, gruff, yet somehow not-quite-right said, 'Careful-this one's feisty.'

Lily desperately twisted her head to and fro, trying to figure out where the noise had come from.

_KIDNAPPERS?! Here, at Hogwarts? What was going on?_

'So what're we gonna do with you, eh?' came a different voice, also harsh yet somehow alien…

'Can I hiths her bosth?' lisped a voice to Lily's right.

'Go on you mis'rable creature.'

There was a loud _SMACK!_ next to Lily's ear, so sudden it made her head whip the other way in shock. But she felt no pain, or indeed, no contact…

'Don't hurt her!' cried a voice.

'Shut up Prongs!' hissed another. _Were there more people tied up? She could have sworn that was-_

'Sirius now you've given the game away!'

'As if you didn't just then, saying my name aloud!'

'Would you all just shut up?'

'I will when you will, _Mary_.'

'Sirius, don't be such a pig!'

'Jenny, don't be such a bore!'

'WOULD YOU ALL JUST _SHUT IT?!_' Lily had never heard Mary so angry. 'I don't care how much any of you want to play kidnappers and mafia and robbers and all that rubbish-just leave the goddamned food and leave them alone!'

There was a mumble of agreement, and there was the sound of a heavy bag being dropped onto the floor.

'Put them closer!'

There was a scraping of chairs and Lily was moved forward, then repositioned, shifted to the left, then everyone seemed to be traipsing out of the room. Just before the door snapped shut, she heard someone say _'Defluo,'_ and the piece of material covering her eyes slipped gently from her face, and Lily could feel it sliding away, _flowing _before all of a sudden, it wasn't there at all.

Lily blinked. It took her a while to regain her vision. When she had, she saw that she was still sitting in a disused classroom, tied to a chair…facing none other than James Potter.

Lily glared at him.

Half of her brain couldn't help but notice that the gag looked rather like a dashing robbers' disguise on him, making him look kind of, sort of, cute, like in an old cowboy movie.

'Lily-'

She gave him her most withering death stare. Even muffled by the gag, his voice was piercingly familiar.

There was a pause. About a minute later, James gushed, 'Evans I kno' yer upset wiv me-an' you hav ev'ry righ': wha' you heard an' saw w's unaccep'able. Butyouneedtoletmeexplain.'

Lily sighed.

'Look,' she said, her words slurred by the gag, 'Wo' if we ge' ourselves outta tha gags 'n' bonds. Th'n maybe w'll talk.'

James nodded, gazing at her, a tender light in those eyes that she longed to believe…

'M'wand's inmy pocket!' Lily lisped excitedly.

'R'ly?!'

'Mmhm! Sh'ffle ova here…'

Awkwardly they both tried to shuffle their chairs towards each other, dragging the chair legs against the ground and trying to hop while sitting on the chairs. Then James found he could stand when stooped over, and managed, by doing a strange, crab-like walk, to get his chair next to Lily's.

'Righ', my wan's in my back pocke'.'

James raised his eyebrows. 'Oh grea'…'

Standing up as tall as he could, he walked backwards until his hand (strapped to the chair) was level with Lily's chair, and shuffling closer to her, he reached behind her and carefully eased her wand from her back pocket.

'Canyou undo th' ropes?' she asked.

James pointed her wand at her gag and muttered, ''Elashio!'

Unfortunately, because he was gagged, the spell did not come out quite right, and the gag ended up tightening around Lily's mouth rather than releasing it.

She glared. Then she stood up, bent over, and said ''ow 'ere's 'our 'and?'

'I' my sock!'

Lily raised her eyebrows. She could still feel the gag cutting into her mouth, and couldn't speak, but shuffled over toward James's foot, and, finding the right one, eased his wand out of his sock, careful not to fall over, then she sighed and let herself rock backward. Unfortunately, with rather too much momentum, the chair ended up rocking all the way backward, and falling over.

'We'w done,' muttered James.

'_Di'indo,' _she said as clearly as possible. A deep gash appeared on James's right arm, and Lily felt a spark of satisfaction.

'UUUUHHHNNG!' James cried out in pain.

Lily screwed up her face and said, pointing James's wand at the bonds, _'Di…fin…do!'_

The ropes fell off, severed, and James leapt up and helped to untie her and lift her off the floor.

Unable to properly say the spell, Lily had to get James to turn around so she could carefully undo his gag. It then took James about five minutes to get hers off, muttering, 'Sorry…ow-this is a really hard knot to undo!'

Finally they stood there, both untied, stretching themselves. 'How do we get out?' asked James.

Lily walked towards the door, 'Alohamora.' She tried the door handle. Nothing.

Taking a run-up, Lily ran at the door, threw herself at it, trying to get it to move, open…

'HELP!' she cried.

James joined in. 'HELP! HELP! We're stuck in a classroom! PLEASE…_SOMEBODY HELP US!'_

It was no use.

'I think they put a Silencing Charm on the door…' muttered James.

'God damnit!' muttered Lily angrily, 'I can't believe them! They set us up! For the second time. First Mary and Jenny tell me you're dead so I convince myself I actually like you, _then_, even after you've been perving on girls having their baths, they join up with Sirius and lock me in a bloody classroom with you! I'm going to KILL them!'

'Maybe they think I have a good explanation,' said James bitterly.

'Yeah well guess what? They're wrong,' Lily cried, 'You've caused more problems than you're worth James Potter! I don't want to listen to you now, or ever!'

'Right.' There was a silence, 'Well, let's look at this food,' said James with a false cheeriness, picking up the large sack in the middle of the classroom.

He pulled out several pots containing sandwiches, two slices of pie and a small amount of apple crumble. James laid them out on the floor, then proceeded to pull out a large bottle of water and a quilt.

Lily glared. 'Where's my blanket, may I ask?'

James tipped the empty bag upside down, 'There's only one.'

'Oh, and of course _you_ get it!'

'Actually I was going to suggest we sha-'

'_No way!_ I am not sleeping within ten feet of you!' She snatched the blanket from him, and pulling her wand from her pocket, carefully traced a line down the middle, ripping it in half. The two halves were painfully small. Without a second glance, Lily threw one of the pieces at him and walked to the other end of the room, where she proceeded to light a fire using her wand (and making sure to fire-proof the furniture and the room with a single incantation before lighting it).

The night had turned cold, and rain streaked the window. Lily was glad of her fire now, and tried to wrap herself in the tiny strip of the quilt.

She could hear James rolling around on the floor, no doubt trying to get comfortable.

'Lily?'

'What?' she answered tersely.

'C-could you sh-sh-sh-share the fire, it's kinda cold…'

'Can't you conjure up your own fire? You're in Seventh Year.'

'Yeah,' said James, 'But I never learnt how to fire-proof stuff.'

She sat up and looked over at him.

He was curled up in a ball, the thin piece of quilt draped over him, shivering like crazy.

With a sigh, Lily extinguished her fire then muttered '_Incendio Probationem!'_ The rest of the room which she hadn't fireproofed before gained a sudden glossy sheen, and then Lily, satisfied, muttered, '_Incendio!' _and a cheery fire sprung up in the middle of the room.

James huddled around it, warming his hands.

'Thanks Lily.'

'Hm,' she muttered.

There was a silence, punctuated by the crackling of the fire.

Lily found she couldn't lay down, so sat up, pulling the strip of blanket around her shoulders.

'Shall we share the food? I'm kind of hungry,' said James.

'Fine,' said Lily, who hadn't eaten that much dinner, and in all truth was quite ravenous.

There was only one spoon, so, after demolishing the pie and sandwiches using their fingers, they were forced to share one spoon as they ate the apple crumble, with was rather awkward for both of them.

Then they sat there, on either side of the campfire for hours, in complete silence. Lily heard her watch ticking…ten o'clock…twelve o'clock…one in the morning…two thirty…

'Lily.'

She looked up, stifling a yawn.

'Please, _please_ let me explain. You don't have to believe me-even though I'd really like you to, but you do have to hear my side of the story. PLEASE. You can even ask Professor McGonagall-she'll back me up.'

Lily stared. There was a long, static silence. The atmosphere between them was thick with emotion.

Finally Lily sniffed disdainfully and said, 'Alright then, you can explain. But if your story doesn't match up to that of Professor McGonagall's then I _swear_…'

'I know. Thank you.' He said simply. 'Well, it was that night when you'd just refused to come and prank the Slytherins with us, and we were making our way along the corridors. We managed to sneak down to the Entrance Hall when we heard someone coming. I quickly put the Invisibility Cloak over the others, figuring I was Head Boy, and less likely to look suspicious. Turns out it was Professor McGonagall, looking for you.'

'For me?'

'That's what I just said. Anyway, she said she couldn't find you anywhere, and could I please help to look for a Fifth year girl who'd gone missing a couple of days ago and hadn't been seen since. Apparently they'd looked everywhere, and they wanted me to check up on the fifth floor. When I got up there I looked in every room except the girls' bathroom-'

'That's not what it looked like to me!'

'Please, just let me finish.' Lily was silent. 'Then I heard noises. Splashing, and then a sudden burst of water, and strange, underwater sounds. So I decided to investigate. I asked the portrait outside who was in the bathroom, but he wouldn't answer, said something about no-one being in there, and then something about his wife and a lunatic asylum.'

'Brutus doesn't have a wife!' said Lily, 'you're lying!'

'No-honestly I'm not…I swear that painting's just _weird_. I mean honestly-he kept forgetting I'd approached at all, asked where I'd come from.

'Then I went in, with my back turned to the bath and asked that rude painting of the mermaid who was in there. She wouldn't tell me who it was, so I had to ask all sorts of questions, but she wouldn't answer me. Then she told me to leave, and I asked her if the person in there was drowning. She told me no, so I went to leave. Then you appeared.

'I didn't know what to say-I was so shocked to see you there, and I was wondering about all the sounds I'd heard, I just froze up. Then I went and told Professor McGonagall that I hadn't found the Fifth Year, and it turned out the stupid girl had got herself lost in the Forbidden Forest and chased out by the Centaurs. Hagrid ended up saving her. Apparently she was still gibbering on about giant spiders and strange salamander-like creatures. McGonagall says she's till in the Hospital Wing, recovering from "intense shock, lack of food and severe scratches". Ask her. Ask McGonagall too, and the portrait-guy with amnesia. Just ask. Please.'

Lily grimaced, 'I'll question them, don't you worry. But don't think you're forgiven James.'

And, ten thousand questions racing around in her head, Lily lay down and rolled over. But sleep was far from her mind.

It was 8:37am on the dot when the others let them out. Lily extinguished the fire while James shoved the empty pots and the spoon into the food bag. Lily then collected the two pieces of the blanket and their friends found the heavy bag and the halved blanket shoved roughly into their hands.

Lily and James both left the room and went in the opposite directions.

'Sooo…' said Ellie, breaking the uncomfortable silence, 'I'm guessing that's a sign it didn't go so fantastically well.'

'What is it Miss Evans?' asked Professor McGonagall shortly, 'I'm sorry but I don't have all day!'

'Well I was just wondering…a little while ago, did a Fifth Year go missing?'

'Yes, Miss Elfrage. Why do you ask?'

'And did you send James to the Fifth Floor corridor to look for her?' persisted Lily.

'Yes, and, as I had just been called away to stop two Sixth-Years duelling I had to send him into the Prefects' Bathroom, as I could not find you, Miss Evans, and Miss Elfrage, though not a Prefect, is apparently very fond of bathing there.'

Lily stared. James was right.

Still, she couldn't help making her way to the hospital wing to check with this Miss Elfrage, just to be sure.

By the end of the day though, Lily wasn't having much luck convincing herself that James was lying-she had spoken to McGonagall, Jessie Elfrage, the paintings of Brutus and Delta, and several other paintings on the Fifth Floor Corridor-even Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, and so far all of them had only held evidence of his innocence.

She went to be wondering.

As chatter about the Seventh Years' ball became more pronounced, Lily found herself worrying. Her friends must have picked this up, because, while they were all out in the courtyard and the others were discussing with Jasmine what sort of theme the ball would have (Professor McGonagall had told them this morning it would be announced by the end of the week), Jeannie asked, 'Lily, are you okay? You look really distant.'

'You ALWAYS do when we discuss the ball,' said Mirabelle.

'Why is that?' asked Ellie.

'Spill,' Mary added.

'Yeah, spill your guts,' said Jasmine.

There was a slight pause, 'Y-yea…th-dj…yeah, what they said!' said Jenny in a rush.

'No it's just…I can't dance!'

'What!'

'As _if!'_

'Everyone can dance!'

'Well I can't-so does that make me no-one then? I've never learned…I've never tried…'

'I used to do swing dancing,' said Mary, 'I'm sure I could teach you some basic steps.'

'That's sweet Mary, but to be honest, the last thing I want is you seeing how incompetent I really am.'

'Lily,' Jenny said softly.

'No really, I mean it. So, to be honest, I think I'll just stand on the sidelines of the ball.'

'You can't do that!'

'Actually it's better than what _I _thought you were going to say,' said Jasmine, 'I thought you'd say you weren't going under any circumstance.'

Ellie grinned, 'Gotta be honest, I thought that too.'

'Well I sort of have to go…' Lily trailed off. The girls closed in like a hungry wolf-pack.

'Tell! Tell! Tell! Tell! Tell! Tell! TELL!'

'Who asked you?'

'Who're you going with?'

'Was it James?'

'You've forgiven him? I bet she has!'

'No I bloody well have NOT forgiven James!' said Lily loudly, realizing too late that the entire courtyard had gone silent, and, even worse, the Marauders were all making their way past them on the outside of the courtyard, and therefore had most probably heard every single word they had said.

Lily quickly turned her back to them.

The others waited until the Marauders were gone, and everyone else in the courtyard had resumed their chatting.

They lowered their voices to a whisper.

'So, who asked you?'

'Adam Gerdal.'

The others looked shocked.

'Adam?'

'Gerdall?!'

'You're _serious?_'

'The SHADOW boy?'

'You didn't say yes did you?'

'Well, I…'

'He's a creep!' said Mirabelle hotly.

'Well-I didn't mean to say yes-it was just after dinner, right before you guys _locked me in a classroom_,' she said with venom, glaring.

'Lily, _come on!_ We've already apologised for that!'

'-and I was so surprised that I said yes before I could think…oh god, what am I going to do?'

'NOW it hits her?'

'You could always say you'd promised to go with someone else!'

'What if he asks who?'

'Just say "a Seventh Year, you wouldn't know him,"' said Jeannie, helpful as always.

'But what reason would I give for saying yes to him if someone'd already asked me?'

'You say you forgot!'

'But it might hurt his feelings!' she said sadly.

'Are we sure he HAS feelings?'

'JENNY!' said Lily, 'Don't be so horrid!'

'Okay, okay, okay. But tonight, you'll tell him you can't go with him.'

'Alright.'

'Hi Adam.'

'Oh hi Lily. You all set for the ball? It's going to be so cool!'

'Yeah, about that-I was just going to tell you, I'm-'

'I can't wait 'til we find out the theme,' Adam rambled, and Lily had a feeling it was on purpose that he wouldn't let her speak. 'Apparently last year it was Georgian-period fashion and décor. Everyone had to wear these crazy wigs…'

'Adam there's…something I need to talk to you about.'

'Yes?' he asked, eyes wide.

_How could she do this? Back out? She'd got his hopes up-she couldn't just take back her word…it would be really cruel._

'I was…just wondering if we could do our costume shopping separately-you know, make it a big surprise…a grand unveiling I guess.'

'Oh-sure! That'd be great. You're full of great ideas Lily. For a moment there I thought you were about to…oh well, see you at the ball!'

He leaned up to kiss her cheek, but, pretending not to realize, she turned her head to look out the window, 'Oh look! You can see the Giant Squid from up here! Oh, look at the time-gotta go Adam, see you at the ball!'

She did her best not to run, but managed to slow herself to a speed-walk, and left wondering desperately how she would tell the girls, still gathered in the library.

'LILY!'

'Ssssshhh!'

'Why do you have to be so kind?!' said Mary, exasperated.

'But he looked so sad!'

'It's all a ploy,' said Jenny firmly.

'I agree,' Jeannie added, 'talking excitedly non-stop when you were about to say something…suspicious. He's up to something!'

'Come on guys, cheer up!'

'How _can _we cheer up?' wailed Ellie, 'Our Lily is condemned to having her feet trodden on by Adam Gerdal!'

'SSSSSHHHHH!'

'What will you do now?' asked Jasmine.

'What do you mean?'

'I mean what will you tell James when he asks you?'

'Go away and leave me alone!' she cried, 'You have the nerve to even ask me to the ball after all you've done?'

'No actually,' came the sarcastic reply, 'I just wanted to see what it was like to finally be rejected by a girl. Gotta admit it kinda sucks if they're all as bad-mannered and grumpy as you.'

'Just shut up and leave me alone Sirius!'

It had been quite obvious from the moment he walked up to her after potions, that Sirius Black had no intention of actually asking her to the ball, just of pushing her buttons until she exploded. And he was doing a very good job.

'Poor James. You treat him like this every time he asks you out too?'

'It's none of your business Black, now stop following me around!'

'Oh Lily, Lily, Lily, you're the sweetest flower I've ever met.'

Lily was not overly proud of what she did next. But it took Sirius a very long time to get the singed smell out of his beloved hair.

Lily was silent during Ancient Runes, musing her fate: what could she say to Adam? She couldn't really do much about it all now…

'Lily are you okay?' asked Remus, seated next to her, 'You're very preoccupied this lesson.'

'Oh no it's just…I'm just worrying about the ball.'

'Oh? Why?'

'It's just that…I can't dance.'

'Really?'

'Good, 'cause no-one will ask you to,' said Sirius irritably, listening in on their conversation from behind, his hair still smoking slightly.

Lily didn't even need to glare at him: Jenny, Mary, Ellie, Remus, James, Jasmine and even Peter did it for her. (All the Seventh Years were given the same timetable for the last few weeks of their schooling-they each had the same subjects with two of the houses in one room, two in the other, so they could quickly learn a vast number of things they hadn't looked into before.)

'Okay, okay!' said Sirius, seeming to shrink under the close scrutiny,

'Why don't you ask Slughorn Lily?' suggested Remus, 'He probably went to heaps of dances when he was young-'

'-and dinosaurs roamed the earth…'

'Shut up Padfoot. But anyway, you're his favourite pupil. I'm sure he'll give you advice!'

'Perfect,' said Lily, 'We have Potions with the Hufflepuffs next. I'll just make a brilliant potion, and he'll practically beg to help me!' Lily grinned, 'Thanks Remus!'

'Practice m'dear, that's all I can tell you. Practice every day you can if you want to be good. Find somewhere you can go each day after lessons.'

'Thank you Professor Slughorn.'

'No trouble m'dear-oh, and Lily?' he said, handing her a familiar scroll tied with a purple ribbon, 'the hard-working Seventh Year can finally return to the Club. I look forward to seeing you there again-Mr Brendal has been getting too big for his own boots,' said Slughorn with a wink, 'I think it's time you were there to give him a helping hand.'

Grinning, Lily skipped from the dungeons, planning her dance schedule.

Somewhere to practice? _Hm…the Room of Requirement!_


	22. Chapter 23: Dancing Moans

**Hey guys, just a small update, with the promise that there's more to come. Soon. Ish. :) Big plans, don't you worry. ;) Bon Appetit!**

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Chapter 23

Dancing Moans

Lily waited until the corridors were deserted. Nobody would see her, nobody would notice. Then, when the coast was clear, she ran as fast as she could to the Seventh Floor corridor.

There, she stood in front of the (rather special) wall, and paced in front of it three times, thinking 'I need a place to practice dancing… I need a place to practice dancing, I need a place to practice dancing.'

A richly embossed and decorated golden door materialized in the wall.

With a thousand butterflies fluttering in her stomach, Lily reached out and turned the ornate handle, and stepped inside.

She found herself in a large room with a high, domed ceiling; pastel-coloured drapes hung all around, reaching to the floor, which was a light, polished wood; around the outside of the dance floor, just on the right hand side, was a row of comfortable-looking chairs ; and, on an ornate golden table stood a very large, very regal-looking old gramophone, a tall stack of records piled neatly beside it.

Lily walked over to it and began examining some of the records.

'_The Warlock's Waltz'_, _''Till You Love Me', 'Turn Your Lover', 'Dancing Classics' , 'Ballroom Music'_

The titles spun around in her head. Waltzes? Ballroom dancing? That meant…

'A partner.'

Lily's voice echoed around the magnificent dance room.

'Can't you magic up a moving dance dummy or something?' she asked the Room. Nothing happened.

Lily paced back and forth in the middle of the Room thinking 'I need a dance partner…I need a dance partner…I need a dance partner!'

Again, nothing happened. Nothing stirred.

Lily sighed. 'I don't even know where to start,' she muttered, twirling around. She tried desperately to move in time to imaginary music, arms extended to a partner that wasn't there.

Then, thinking of how ridiculous she must look, she collapsed onto the floor feeling utterly lost.

She heard-or _thought_ she heard-a loud giggle echoing around the Room. But there wasn't a person in sight.

Rather, behind her was the pearly-white ghost of a girl, floating several feet above the dance floor, snickering an holding onto her silvery glasses to stop them slipping off her rather prominent nose.

Lily suppressed a scream

Instead, she gave a loud gulp and asked, 'Who are you?'

The girl began giggling nastily again, ignoring Lily's question. 'What were you trying to do, stamp out a termite infestation?'

Lily scowled. 'Hey-you're Moaning Myrtle, aren't you? That ghost who paddles around in the Second Floor girls' toilets? I've had loads of First Years complain about you!'

The girl stopped giggling and her face morphed into a very dull and depressed expression.

'I didn't mean to come here. Peeves was chasing me-he was calling me names! Freak, freak, _FREAK!_' she suddenly screamed, sobbing loudly, her face going a dark, blotchy, opaque sort of silvery colour that would have been an ugly maroon had her cheeks had any blood to rush to them.

Lily raised an eyebrow, 'Yeah, I know what _that _feels like.'

Myrtle suddenly stopped crying. 'So anyway, I flew through a wall to avoid him and ended up here. Then I saw you trying to defy gravity so I decided I'd better not miss out on all the fun,' Moaning Myrtle smiled a horrible, evil sort of smile, 'You looked like you were kicking piranhas out of your robes…'

Lily coloured, 'Oh shut up! I doubt _you'd_ know how to dance anyway.'

'No,' said Myrtle, idly itching her nose, 'but I'm sure it's not supposed to look like your pants are on fire.'

'Oh just GO AWAY! Haven't you got somebody else to annoy?'

'Well no,' Myrtle looked suddenly very serious, 'Not since Olive Hornby left. I've been out of the school several times to follow her around, but the Ministry' s given me an official warning…'

'Hey Myrtle! Would any of the other ghosts know how to dance?' asked Lily suddenly, eyes lighting up, 'they could teach me…'

'…but really, I think I'll risk it-her _cousin's wedding!_ Imagine if I popped out of the wedding cake and-'

'OI! MYRTLE!'

'What?' she said crossly, scowling at the interruption. 'D'you think I should hide behind the priest and pop out halfway through the service instead?'

'What? NO! Look, Myrtle, do any of the other ghosts know how to dance?'

'Hm…' Myrtle rose into the air, lazily floating above Lily's head, 'Well Nearly Headless Nick might…but he can't dance without his head coming off…the Fat Friar only knows really ancient dances…The Grey Lady's too shy…none of the others know how, certainly not Peeves…Perhaps the Bloody Baron could-'

'No!' said Lily immediately. The very thought of so much as approaching the blood-covered, terrifying ghost of Slytherin House sent shivers down her spine.

'Well if you didn't want my opinion, why ask for it?' said Myrtle huffily.

'Oh Myrtle, get a life,' said Lily sourly.

Myrtle burst noisily into tears. 'How dare you!' she sobbed, 'Tactless!'

'What?' asked Lily.

'TO MENTION LIFE!' screamed Myrtle, now angrily zooming across the room, 'WHEN I HAVEN'T GOT ONE, HAVE I?! I CAN'T BREATH, I CAN'T _EAT_, I CAN'T _DRINK_, AND I'M STILL MOCKED FOR STAYING IN THE S BEND OF MY TOILET! WELL I HATE YOU ALL! I REALLY DO!'And, still howling to the moon, Myrtle zoomed out of the Room at top speed.

Lily, rather ruffled by her first encounter of the moody ghost she'd heard so much about from distressed First Years trying to go to the toilet and coming across Moaning Myrtle, decided to abandon practice for the day. Besides, she wasn't getting anywhere.

She waited until she was absolutely certain Myrtle was gone, before rushing back up to the Gryffindor Tower and very much hoping Myrtle didn't take a dislike to her, or else she may end up like Olive Hornby, with a rather depressed and opaquely spotty problem.


	23. Chapter 24:The Wolf and the Snake

**Hi everyone, I'm going through a bit of a family crisis at the moment, so I will not be able to update very regularly, but I'll try my best-it's just a bit hectic at the moment. In the meantime, read Harry Potter, read other fanfics, enjoy yourselves and feel lucky that you lead the life you do!**

**Okay, just a warning: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS VIOLENCE, SWEARING, UNFAIRNESS AND BETRAYAL AND MATURE THEMES. IT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN/TEENS. PLEASE BEWARE! (I am serious). **

**Disclaimer- I'd like to think I came up with this all by myself, and I am pretty sure I did: the scene and the idea and all just popped into my head unaided; but I HAVE seen The Perks of Being A Wallflower, and looking back, some aspects of this chapter are rather similar. So, if my mind has subconsciously formed a copyrighted scene, or if I have been influenced by that movie in any way, this is the bit where I say it isn't mine, I'M NOT STEALING IT!**

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Chapter 24

The Wolf and the Snake

Lily sat up late on Tuesday night doing her Charms essay, wondering how on earth she'd be able to go to the dance, dancing as she was now.

She'd been back to the Room of Requirement every day since she'd discovered the dance room, and had even found a book in the library, '_Dancing for Beginners,' _but still couldn't quite get one foot in the front of the other without falling over; and the music seemed to be all about love, or else it was a waltz or a dance that required a partner.

She honestly didn't know what to do about the ball. Sighing, Lily realized too late that her quill had been hovering idly above her parchment, and now there was a large ink spot in the middle of her page. Lily grabbed her wand and siphoned the ink off the page.

Maybe she'd sort it all out tomorrow, after the Slug Club meeting…perhaps she could even ask Slughorn about her current trouble with dancing…

Lily looked around the Common Room. It was deserted. She checked her watch, and, yawning, packed up her things and went off to bed, fantasizing that she was an amazing dancer, and Adam Gerdal had somehow mysteriously disappeared overnight.

Lily arrived at breakfast bright and early next morning, to find the Slytherin table the liveliest in the Great Hall, almost every person on it whispering sinisterly. Even as Lily watched, several Slytherins got up from where they were sitting and began quizzing none other than Severus Snape.

'You're sure?'

'He's a-? A real-?'

Rather confused by this, Lily sat down in between Jenny and Jessie who shared their dormitory , both poring over a clipping from _The Daily Prophet_.

'What's that?' asked Lily, helping herself to some muesli and yoghurt.

'Look,' said Jessie, holding the clipping in front of Lily's face.

_Stitchwell's_

she read,

_75% OFF CLEARANCE SALE!_

_EVERYTHING MUST GO!_

_WE DO: Dress robes, casual robes, suits, dresses, vintage clothing and special requests etc._

_So come into Stitchwell's, number 53 Main Road, Hogsmeade._

'Okay…' said Lily, 'Um, this is exciting because…?'

'Well it's their closing sale! They've been bought out by some old woman, Mrs Puddlefoot or something, who plans on opening a teashop,' gossiped Jessie, 'But anyway, Stitchwell's have really good quality stuff, but really expensive. So I figure if we all go to buy our dress-robes or dresses or costumes or whatever together, then we can get a further discount if we can haggle with them a bit…'

'Ohhh-kay then Jess, you have fun with that,' said Lily, spoon paused mid-way to her mouth.

'Oh but you are coming with us aren't you Lily?' asked Jenny. 'You have to!'

'I guess…I'm sorry, but I can't pretend to find shopping the most EXCITING of activities.'

'Oh come on!' said Mary from Jessie's other side, 'We'll all come with you! It'll be FUN!'

'If you say so.'

Chuckling, the girls finished their breakfast, and headed off to Muggle Studies.

'Oh damn, I left my bag up in the Dormitory,' said Lily, 'I'd better rush up…'

'See you soon then,' said Mirabelle, who had joined them from the Slytherin table.

'We'll make your excuses if Professor Burbage asks!' said Mary.

Lily smiled and waved to them as she dashed up the marble staircase when she heard shouting. Curious, Lily turned down the nearest corridor and continued to follow the noise. She could hear yelling, cheering…and a sudden scream. Lily tore down the corridor, only to stop as none other than James, Peter and Sirius walked out of one of the classrooms.

'What on earth-?'

'Lily, what're you doing here?' asked James.

'I might ask you the same question!'

'Ah, well, funny thing that. Well y'see…d'you remember that time we went to prank the Slytherins, then McGonagall found us and sent me to look for that Fifth Year?' Lily's eyes were cold as she nodded stiffly, 'Yeah, well, turns out these geniuses didn't manage to talk themselves out of detention…managed to score a detention for me too…and this was the only time McGonagall could fit us in: can't say she was very happy 'bout wasting her ti-'

'Ssh!' Lily said, 'Listen!'

Cheers echoed down the hallway.

'What's going on?' asked James.

'GET 'IM! HIT HIM! YOU FOUL BEAST!' came a rough voice.

'That sounded like…' began Sirius.

'The Death Eater wannabes.'

There was a sudden cry.

'Oh my god they're hurting someone!' Lily cried, sprinting down the hallway with James, Sirius and Peter hot on her heels.

They raced around the corner and there, in the middle of the sunny corridor, was a large throng of thuggish Slytherins, yelling and cheering, watching something that they had all circled around.

Lily, James, Sirius and Peter pushed their way through the spectators. Lily screamed.

There, circled by a smaller gang of Slytherin was Remus.

Even as Lily watched, one of them punched Remus, hitting him squarely on the nose. Another attacked, and he fell, winded to the ground. Lily saw him lying there, his pale face bruised and cut, screwed up in pain, blood pouring from his nose.

'WE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE, YOU FILTHY HALF-BREED!' yelled one of the thugs.

Another of the Slytherin, Lily recognised him as Mulciber, pulled Remus roughly to his feet and held him in a headlock as the others began to punch and hit Remus, his frail body reacting like a rag doll.

'You filthy _WEREWOLF!_'

Lily felt white-hot anger sear through her stomach. Who'd told them? How dare they? Even as the thoughts formed, she remembered the Slytherin table that morning, whispering and questioning, and asking…Severus. He had betrayed Remus, and shared the suspicion he'd had since Third Year. It was Severus's fault. Lily felt disgust mingle with the fresh wave of fury exploding through her.

Before she could think, plan, or even blink, Lily had hurtled herself at Crabbe, the largest of the Slytherin thugs (now intent upon breaking every one of Remus's ribs), and punched him right in the face.

Everyone stopped, and Lily heard a satisfying crunch as her fist made contact with Crabbe's thick skull. And, to her surprise, the large gorilla-like seventeen-year old Slytherin boy in front of her, fell over, out cold, flat on his face.

'You filthy mudblood!' hissed Avery, an aspiring Slytherin Death Eater with a face like a rat, 'You are unworthy to be standing here, in this castle! How DARE you interfere with our private business?'

With a roar of anger, James and Sirius leapt forward and joined Lily, tackling the Slytherin, who fought back ferociously.

'Remus!" Lily cried, pulling out her wand as Lestrange, a rather weedy boy (by Slytherin standards), tried to grab Remus by the neck.

'Get back!' Lily hissed, wand aloft. She was just able to Stun Lestrange, before someone grabbed her by the waist and slammed her to the floor.

A angry cry let loose from Lily's lips, and she leapt up, Stunning and Hexing anyone who tried to stop her.

'James! Sirius!' she called, dimply aware that Peter had slipped outside the throng and was now stealing off into the shadows. Lily scowled at this. Peter had never been particularly brave, and she had wondered more than once why he was a Gryffindor, but to walk out on your own friends? Lily was quite sure from his behaviour that he wasn't running to get a teacher…

Peter was sweet, in his own way, and Lily knew he wasn't a bad person … they just didn't always see eye to eye on some matters, such as loyalty and friendship.

Lily suddenly screamed as a bright orange spell shot past her head, missing her by inches and burning her shoulder, bringing her back to the present moment.

'Sirius, James!' Lily called again, and she, Sirius and James formed a protective triangle around Remus, unconscious on the ground, their wands pointed at the advancing Slytherins.

'Don't you EVER touch Remus again,' said James, staring the Slytherins down.

'Or any other Gryffindor for that matter,' shot Sirius dryly.

Avery growled, and the rest of the Slytherins began to advance, calling and jeering.

'Why do you wanna protect the Wolf-boy anyway?'

'You bin bitten, eh Potter?'

'And what's with you, _mudblood_, been kissing him behind the greenhouse?'

'SHUT UP!' yelled James.

'You will not ever talk about me or Remus like that again if you value your limbs!' Lily spat.

'Oi, don't come any closer!' Sirius said quickly as the Slytherins, howling with laughter, advanced.

All three raised their wands threateningly.

'Don't-touch-him!' said Lily fiercely.

'Scum! Filth! Rot!' shrieked the Slytherins.

'_Stupefy!_' cried Sirius.

'_Expelliarmus!'_ yelled James.

'_Avis! OPPUGNO!' _Lily cried, sending flocks of small birds at the approaching Slytherins.

The three Gryffindors managed to hold the Slytherins off, sending them sprawling, and several running.

They were all fighting tooth and claw, and there was a general feeling that this was a fight to the death.

'_Incendio!' _

'_Petrificus Totalus!'_

'_CRUCIO!'_

Jets of light flew around, hitting people, bouncing off walls and flagstones.

'DUCK!' screamed Lily, grabbing James and Sirius's hands and pulling them down as a red jet of light flew over their heads.

'YOU DISGUSTING BLOOD TRAITOR!'

'Guys, move,' said Sirius. '_MOVE!'_

'_Avada Kedavra!'_

Lily screamed as the green jet ricocheted off the floor several inches away from her, leaving severe scorch-marks on the flagstones.

'Filth ! Scum! You little bastards!' yelled the Slytherins, '_CRUCIO!_'

Remus's limp body suddenly began to jerk uncontrollably, and a tortured, blood-chilling scream escaped his mouth.

'THAT'S ILLEGAL!' Lily yelled.

'That THING should be illegal!' bellowed Avery, kicking Remus hard in the head.

'DON'T YOU-!'

'That _thing_ is illegal,' came the silky voice of Hunter Goudge, the Slytherins' Fifth-Year Prefect, who, though younger than many, had a definite air of authority. 'To have such a _vicious _creature in a school,' Goudge looked down at Remus, bleeding and whimpering on the floor, 'why, it breaks a great number of Ministry regulations. Quite a crime…I imagine, if the Ministry were to hear of your…_condition_, Lupin,' he spat the word out like it was poison, 'I don't suppose they'd be too pleased.'

'Destroy the scum! EXTERMINATE THE FILTH! Scum, dirt, filth!' the Slytherins began to chant , moving forward, looming ever closer and stopping Lily, James and Sirius from standing up.

'_Avada Kedavra!'_ came the cry.

Lily shrieked in horror, and pulled Remus's unconscious body out of the way, the Curse missing him by inches.

'Help, _help!_ SOMEBODY HELP!' Lily screamed, before an invisible gag suddenly clapped itself over her mouth.

'You don't need help do you scum?' jeered one of the Slytherins.

'You little _bitch_!' snarled another, her lips parted in a manic grin.

Lily pointed her wand at the girl and thought forcefully, '_Relashio!'_

A nasty gash appeared on the girl's arm, and she howled in pain and launched herself at Lily, fighting tooth and claw. Lily felt blood trickling down her face and her arm was pulled roughly behind her back as the girl forced her to the ground.

'OW!' she cried (the gagging Charm had lapsed as the Caster cheered Lily's captor on). Lily just had time before her head was forced to the ground, to see Crabbe stirring and getting up, and to quickly shoot a non-verbal Stunning spell into the crowd. She heard a cry and a satisfying thump, and forced herself not to smile.

James and Sirius, she saw through her one good eye (the other was now extremely swollen where she'd just hit the flagstones) were still fighting. She smiled a little at this. Even though James had been an arrogant toerag in previous years, she had always admired the way he always stood up for his friends, and people that Severus's band of aspiring Death Eaters picked on. James had always stood up for the right…and that was the reason that through all her years at Hogwarts, she had found it quite hard to hate James completely.

They seemed to be holding the Slytherins off…but even as she watched, Mulciber and Crabbe had wrestled them to the floor and were holding both of them there, in a headlock.

Remus lay a few feet away from them, still out cold.

Lily could see many casualties in the Slytherins' ranks, including a nasty bruise on Crabbe's face where she had hit him.

The Slytherins had begun to talk, discussing something.

'-What about the wolf?'

'We can't let it escape…'

'If you kill him, you'll all be arrested! You'll go to Azkaban! You could anyway-those Curses are illegal!' Lily said, shocking everyone, including herself into silence.

'What are YOU going to do about it?' snarled Avery, recovering from the shock of Lily's words, 'And why do you care about the wolf? Pervert!'

'_Confringo!_' Lily screamed, as James and Sirius yelled angrily. The spell hit Avery right in the stomach and blasted him backwards into the wall.

'Get their wands!' came an angry voice, and Lily felt her wand wrestled from her. Her mind began spinning. What if they snapped it? She felt close to tears. This whole incident was hectic, and they hadn't even been able to save Remus.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lily caught sight of a curtain of greasy hair.

'SEVERUS!' she yelled.

He turned to her, eyes full of sadness.

'Oi, shut up!' yelled the Slytherins.

'You don't know this muggle scum do you Snape?' asked Lestrange.

'Sev, please…please, we won't fight. We won't tell anyone-just tell them to let us go! Us and Remus, and we won't touch a hair on your heads: I swear we won't tell _anyone_…please….PLEASE! HELP US!' Lily sobbed.

' "_Sev"?_ You DO know the filthy little worm?!'

'I don't know what she's talking about,' said Severus indifferently, turning away.

'SEVERUS TOBIAS SNAPE!' Lily said angrily, her voice, though weak because the Slytherin girl was sitting on her, was bristling with fury and made Snape turn around and take several steps away from her. 'Don't even-expect-me-to…_ever…_' Lily was having real difficulty speaking now, as the Slytherins were all yelling and jeering and catcalling, and the weight of the girl on top of her was taking its toll. '…EVER-talk…to you…again. I…won't…save you…next time…'

She saw Snape turn his back on them, and walk away.

'You'll-be-SORRY!' she gasped.

'Don't talk like that to Snape!'

'YOU LITTLE-!'

She felt feet slamming into her, and cried out in pain as her mouth suddenly filled with blood, and, to her horror, she spat out a pearly white tooth, followed by a lot more blood mingled with spit.

Then she felt something heavy collide with her head, heard a yell, and everything went fuzzy…

'Don't-hurt…them…' she muttered thickly, 'R…Remus…!'

There was a loud, sickening crunch, and Lily faintly heard the sound of hurried footsteps approaching, heard an angry voice and several shouts. Then everything went black…


	24. Chapter 25: The Beginning of the End

**Hey guys.**

**DISCLAIMER: ANYTHING INFLUENCED BY DOWNTON ABBEY (oh my god, awesomest show ever!), HP, ANY OTHER THING I'VE READ OR WATCHED BELONGS TO THE BELONGER OF THE BELONGYISH STUFF. IT ISN'T MINE, IN NON-FANCY WORDS. THAT ALL GOOD WITH EVERYONE? Whoa...I really need to stop using caps. Makes me seem like I'm shouting**

**MASSSIVE MAAAAASSIVE, MASSSSIVERRR DISCLAIMER (Oh great, here we go again): THE THING AT THE END ABOUT THE BOATS (won't say no more here, but it's a wicked idea. Sadly it's not mine) THAT WAS THOUGHT UP BY OUR VERY OWN TOTALLY AWESOME JK ROWLING , IT IS NOT MINE, SHE SAID IT IN AN INTERVIEW, AND I THOUGHT IT WAS SUCH A COOL IDEA I HAD TO INCLUDE IT! Enjoy.**

**So here, my fanfiction must draw to a close. This is the last time I will update. The last time there'll be little comments saying 'UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!' ;) **

**Due to the trauma of a recent family crisis (and I am serious when I say it is a large family crisis: it has changed my life forever, and I will never return to the way things were), I cannot continue to write this. So here are some of my notes and some already-written material I came up with. Hopefully you can piece the story together for yourself. If you want anything cleared up, or have a question about something, please put it in your review, or pm me, and I'll pm the answer back, in story form, maybe, depending. It's all planned out in my head still, I just don't have the time or energy to remove it from my head. I seriously need a pensieve. **

**I need to move on with my life and my recovery, and this story, while it has been immense fun, has also been a source of stress and pressure for me. I've been so anxious of what you all think about my story, and trying to update all the time, while still making it good. This is my first fanfiction. It may be my last. At the moment I'm working on my other writing-focusing on a story about a girl who lives on a rather haphazard farm. So we'll see how that goes.**

**Thank you everyone for your support/readership. This hasn't gone at all to plan of the letter I wrote to you all last night, but stuff it, who cares?**

**Thanks FanFic., and thanks FanFic. Writers, Readers, those3 who love it, those who use it, those who contribute, those who don't, those who set the website up, and everyone in between. Thanks guys**

**And girls!**

**Love,**

**Rainbowserpent**

**PS I'll write back in exactly a year from today, 8/4/2013 for me, and check the statistics, read more fanfic, drop you all a line. See you all then. And everyone, enjoy your lives, never forget to get back up when you fall, love yourself more than you love anyone else, respect yourself and other people, don't put up with what you shouldn't, and find a good role model in a book, a tv show, a whateverdewhatever. Wipe away your tears and smile: life is beautiful.**

**But for now, everyone, thank you.**

* * *

Chapter 25

The Beginning of the End

Lily woke up lying on something soft and warm. She blinked. The hospital wing swum into view, several of the gaslamps on.

Lily sat up, and looked around. Madam Pomfrey was bending over somebody, holding a cup of some green steaming liquid. Lily slipped out of bed and tiptoed up behind the matron. There, in the bed, was Remus. His face was badly bruised, both his eyes black and magnificently swollen. He had cuts all over his face, and his breaths seemed to be short and shallow, as though each one cost him dearly.

'Will he be alright?'

Madam Pomfrey turned around, startled. But she managed to hide it, saying crisply, 'Ah, it's you Evans.'

'Will he recover?' Lily asked, watching Remus's chest heave up and down in the effort of drawing breath, 'I mean, with his condition and everything-?'

'So you know about that do you?' the matron's voice was sharp but not unkind. Lily nodded. 'He's sustained severe damage to his ribs, and has quite a few bruises and cuts to mend, and when the full moon comes around it may make things difficult, but I'm sure he'll pull though. You may have saved his life, Miss Evans.'

Lily smiled, looking across the ward to see James and Sirius, asleep in their beds, 'We all did.'

The next day Lily woke up to find James staring over her. She blinked.

'Oh my god Lily,' he whispered, and hugged her tightly, almost winding her. 'I was so worried

Lily patted his shoulder vaguely, hoping he'd let go soon so she could breath.

When they broke apart James was babbling about the Slytherins, 'And when that scumbag hit you I was so scared-!'

'James, stop worrying about me,' said Lily, leaning up to kiss his cheek. 'It's sweet, but I'm not the one who needs it.' She looked across to Remus's bed. Jasmine, she saw, was actually already there. 'Oh. Right,' said Lily, 'Remus already has company.'

'They make such a cute couple,' said James. 'Nah, I think I will go talk to Moony just to annoy him in front of his _girlfriend…_'

Lily giggled. Not even James's silly antics would be able to frighten Jasmine off-Remus had told her Jasmine's reaction when she'd found out he was a werewolf: she'd said "So I'm supposed to care why?", and kissed him.

Those two would be very happy.

Remus was required to stay in the Hospital Wing for the rest of the week, as he hadn't been going so well, and as it was the week of the full moon. Madam Pomfrey was giving him a newfound elixir, the Wolfsbane Potion, which caused him to curl up and go to sleep in his wolf form rather than go on rampage. Jasmine went up to visit him every day.

Professor Dumbledore had spoken firmly to the Slytherins, and was forced to Modify the memories of all but one. He had hoped it would not come to that, but there was racial prejudice against werewolves deeply ingrained into these Slytherins' upbringings, so, through no fault of their own, they were brought up to think that way. But Dumbledore had to ensure Remus's safety. None of them remembered the incident, or indeed , the rumour, except Severus Snape, whom Dumbledore had been in conference with, and had decided should learn from his actions. He would not share the secret again though, Dumbledore was quite sure of that. Snape was quite sure he wouldn't share the secret either, for a very long time, at least. Perhaps when Lupin and his friends had long since graduated-and it would hardly matter then.

But Lily felt that that wasn't enough. The Slytherins needed to pay for making Remus go through such pain and trouble.

One night after breakfast, she approached James, Sirius and Peter.

'Would you guys be willing to help me?'

They exchanged glances, 'With what, exactly?' asked Sirius.

'A little thing called payback.'

'What? How? When? What th-? _You?_'

'Yes, me,' snapped Lily. 'I'm going to prank the Slytherins. Are you going to help me or not?'

'I thought you didn't do pranking,' said James, bewildered.

'Yeah, miss High and Mighty 'I'm-very-disappointed-in-you,' sniggered Sirius.

'The "Prefect-Headgirl-good grades-goodie two shoes-me doesn't do pranking, but the actual Lily Evans? She does!'

The Marauders (though still incomplete as Remus was still in the Hospital Wing), grinned.

The first thing they did was look through Lily's Payback Items, bought not-so-very-long-ago in Hogsmeade.

When they told Remus what they'd done to the Slytherins, he (rather uncharacteristically) laughed and laughed.

'Really? They fell for _Tongue-Dissolving Chewing Gum_? And those eating jellies that try to eat your face? REALLY? They just found food on the tables of the Common Room and decided to eat it?' sniggered Remus.

'Apparently,' said Lily, eyebrow raised as the seventh Slytherin of the afternoon came into the Hospital Wing, covered in Weeklong Lasting Smell of Compost, hands swollen with Bubotuber puss, a small jelly crocodile hanging off his nose, to be treated by Madam Pomfrey, who, of course, knowing the full story, refused to treat them.

Remus laughed, 'That's priceless!'

Lily continued to practice each day she could, in the Room of Requirement. Unfortunately she seemed to be getting worse.

She would ask Slughorn each time she attended a meet of the Slug Club, but nothing seemed to help.

Mary, Jenny, Mirabelle (who had been forewarned of the prank and thought it was hilarious), Jess and all Lily's other friends noticed that Lily seemed to be disappearing more often, but they didn't know where to.

Lily also found, as she twirled around in the Room of Requirement, listening to the gramophone playing romantic old waltzes, that her grudge against James began to dissolve. He was innocent of the crimes she had been holding against him. It was time to move on from that. And besides, they had fought side by side since the whole brouhaha had begun. This had changed, and Lily was glad that they had. Glad that she felt unashamed to love him. But would he still love her back, when she had been so resolute in hating him? Only time would tell.

Professor McGonagall had finally told the Seventh Years that it would be a Renaissance style ball, so Lily and all her friends went next weekend to Hogsmeade, to Stitchwell's, the old tailor's that was closing down. After hours of searching (the other girls had already purchased their gowns and were becoming impatient), Lily found the perfect dress at the back of the rack.

A gorgeous, leafy green and chocolate brown silk gown, with gold trimming. It was a magnificent, sweeping garment that didn't have a train, yet managed to have the same elegance in the slightly-yet-not-impractically-flared sleeves, the V-shaped, pearl encrusted neckline. The underskirts were a delicate white silk, and showed through at the front where there was a gold-trimmed parting, where the underskirt was shown through a V as the two coloured silks swept around to the back. Lily paid for it, and, as she paid for it, she realized, with a little smile, why she liked the colours so much. The green, she realized, was the exact same colour as her eyes, and the brown was the exact shade of James's.

'Pity you're going with Adam Gerdal,' said Mary as they walked back up to the castle. Lily stopped smiling. There was _that_ small detail.

Lily had begun to take her dress to rehearsals, as it was so special to her, but the whole thing seemed tainted by the idea that she might have to dance with Adam Gerdal. _Stop thinking 'might', Lily, you agreed to go with him, you'll probably be dancing the whole night! God damn it…_

James, who had also been wondering where Lily disappeared to, decided to follow her one day. It took him a while to figure out what she's doing in the Room of Requirement, but heard her say 'I'm terrible at dancing!' when the dance was announced, and since then, when questioned, she always answered 'I'm going to practice.' And he had seen her taking up a bundle of material (her dress) and saw a glimpse of the room of requirement as she went in.

He followed her up to the Room of Requirement, then waits until she has slipped inside before dashing up to the door and slipping inside. He hid behind a long curtain. Soon the music is playing, Lily is dancing by herself, eyes closed, hands held in position with an invisible partner. She waltzes around slightly haphazardly. He approaches slowly and quietly as the waltz continues, then slips his hand into hers, his other placed gently on her waist. Her other hand falls into place on his shoulder, and he sees Lily's delicate eyelashes flutter, her perfect mouth gently turns upward at the corners into a soft smile.

Lily dances better than she ever has, and both feel as though they are floating. James, as they waltz around places his forehead on hers, their noses touching. Lily's eyes flicker open briefly (his are now closed) and then their gazes meet, green and hazel united. They share a smile, and their eyes close again-they continue to dance, perfectly, eyes closed, completely trusting and depending on each other.

James turned up to her next 'rehearsal'. They walked up and down before the wall holding hands, both picturing the dance room. As they get ready, Lily asks, 'How did you learn to waltz anyway?'

'My dad taught me.'

Lily raises her eyebrows, 'Seriously?'

James, surprised, says, 'Yeah…I mean, I'm not very good, but y'know…he thought it'd be good for me to know how-he was very into '20's dancing my dad, and he thought he'd teach me, in case I ever met a girl special enough to want to share a dance…' he trailed of awkwardly.

Lily laughed. 'That's sweet,' she said, 'don't be ashamed! I think it's cute.'

And, as they began to dance, James had a feeling that his old dad was looking down on him, smiling and chuckling that it was he who brought James together with the girl he'd been complaining about since First Year. That, James knew, was priceless.

Both James and Lily became antisocial, yet extremely happy and unable to wait untill end of the day when they can sneak up to the R.O.R. Their friends noticed, and, with Remus back, they wondered about it together, how it was odd that the two disappeared together… But they didn't say anything about it, in case they ruined the couple's last chance together. Lily's friends tried not to remind Lily of Adam much.

On the last day before the ball, their last rehearsal, Lily is fantastic at dancing thanks to James. 'Oh well,' says James, at an attempt to cheer Lily up (as she's told him she really doesn't want to go with Adam), 'I'm sure Adam Gerdal is a much better dance than me.'

Lily spends time getting dressed up and doing her hair with the other girls. But she doesn't feel like there's much of a point. She smiled, remembering a song her parents had listened to by The Beatles: For No One.

'…_She wakes up, she makes up_

_She takes her time and doesn't feel she has to hurry, _

_She no longer needs you_

_And in her eyes you see nothing_

_No sign of love behind the tears…'_

But she decides to continue with the plan, to go with Adam, not wanting to hurt his feelings.

When Lily arrived at the dance, she found herself wishing she could turn back time and say no to Adam….if only she had…

The Great Hall had been cleared of tables, ornately decorated, and it was like walking into a large, more elaborate version of the Room of Requirement's dance room. There was a massive gramophone playing the same sort of music, a small refreshments table, several tables and chairs, and Lily saw a few couples already swirling on the dance floor.

'Hello Lily,' said Adam, 'you ready? I doubt you'll be able to keep up with me. I am a very good dancer.'

'Is that so?' Lily muttered under her breath. 'Oh that's nice Adam,' Lily said, feeling bored and lonely already.

Adam was a terrible dancer, stepping on her toes, and blaming her for it. Lily found herself wishing for James…

'I have to get some punch,' Adam said suddenly.

'Ok, d'you want me to-'

'NO! You stay here!' Adam seemed rather flustered, and disappeared suddenly. Thanking her lucky stars, Lily made her way to a seat, rubbing her feet where Adam had stomped on her.

She watched the dancing for the next half hour, as Adam still hadn't reappeared. The couples all looked lovely and happy. People swirled around to the music, McGonagall and Dumbledore leading them all, as the music switched, in a lively version of the Charleston. Lily smiled as she remembered James teaching her that dance. 'Basically, you have to get your feet to fill in the gaps where my feet aren't at that time. Okay, so basically you _step forward_ with your left foot, _forward again, twice as far with your right,_ then back all the way with your right foot, back half-way with your left. Exactly!' he'd said, 'you're really good at this Lily! Now try the twirl!'

Lily looked over now and saw Remus dancing with Jasmine. Not far away, Jenny was dancing with Danny, and Sirius with a pretty girl Lily only knew by sight. Her eyes seemed to be unconsciously scanning the room, searching for-

'Hi I'm back, nice to see you, oh sorry gotta go to the toilet,' said Adam in a rush, reappearing from nowhere and disappearing just as quickly. Lily scowled huffily. So she was just going to sit around like a useless trophy was she? Angrily, she made her way over to the refreshments table, and got herself a glass of punch and some h'orderves.

She saw Adam fifteen minutes later, across the room, talking to someone. She felt rather angry that he was wasting her time like this. She stormed around the dance floor. Adam, catching sight of her, quickly dived into the dancers and disappeared. Lily finally tracked him down.

'What's going on Adam?'

'Nothing, I just have to…um, here let's dance.'

But after five minutes of having her feet minced into the floor, Lily was saved as Adam said suddenly that he had to check his robes. Lily, thought she thought this was rather dodgy, was glad to be rid of him.

Yet again she waited for fifteen minutes. Right. Well she wasn't going to wait around all night. She pushed her way through the dance floor, still unconsciously keeping an eye out for James, finding Mary at another table.

'Hey Mary, are you okay?' asked Lily.

Mary looked up, still lost in thought, 'Hmmm?'

'You okay?'

'I…yeah…well…boys!' Mary sighed, exasperated, 'I'm sick of them. They're so useless!'

'I know what you mean,' said Lily.

'Really? What about James?'

'Oh but, James is different… he's…'

'Not a boy?' giggled Mary.

'Oh just shut up and dance with me,' laughed Lily, and the two friends began waltzing around with the others, laughing and swapping tales of what an awful night they'd both had so far.

They ran into Adam, rushing past them.

'Oh hi Adam,' said Lily.

'Aah!' Adam gasped, seeing who it was, 'I wasn't-I didn't I-! Oh right, sorry Lily…see you!'

And he dashed off.

'Um, suspicious much?' said Mary.

'You said it.'

'Let's follow him,' Mary suggested, 'Come on…'

They waltzed around, trying to find Adam, but he'd disappeared into the throng. For just Seventh Year, there was an awful amount of people, and it was near impossible to find anyone. Just as they were nearing the edge of the dance floor, they saw two girls sitting at one of the tables, looking close to tears.

They stopped dancing and went over.

'Are you two alright?' asked Lily.

'It's Daphne, isn't it?' Mary asked one of the girls.

'Yes, and this is Georgina,' said Daphne quietly.

'So what's the matter Daphne, Georgina?' asked Lily.

'Boys?' asked Mary.

'Just one actually.'

'Oh really? That sounds complicated.'

'It is,' replied Georgina tearfully.

Mary and Lily sat down.

'You see, I agreed to go with this boy, but he kept running off to go to the bathroom, or get some punch or check his robes or something, and it turns out, he had actually invited Georgina as well,' explained Daphne.

'You know, those excuses sound awfully familiar,' mused Lily, 'who invited you Georgina?'

Georgina looked up, her eyes rather red, 'Adam.'

'Adam who?'

Both girls exchanged a glance, 'Um…I dunno, he never said…was it Green? Or Girth or something?'

'It wasn't, by any chance Adam Gerdal?' asked Mary, slightly amused.

'Oh yeah that's him,' said Daphne viciously, 'treacherous little bleeder!'

Lily laughed, 'Well guess what? He invited me too!'

The girls' eyes widened. 'No!'

'He didn't!'

'_Three? Three different dates_? What a scumbag!'

'Why are you grinning?' asked Daphne.

Lily quickly rearranged her face.

'Yeah Lily, why?' snorted Mary.

But Lily's insides were doing the can-can. _Adam doesn't like me! Adam doesn't like me! Yes!_ It felt rather heartless, but she was so pleased. Then she felt angry that he'd done this to Daphne and Georgina.

'Don't worry,' she said to the girls, 'I'll make him pay.'

She found Adam by the refreshment table, eating a mince pie.

'Oh hey Lily, fancy a da-?'

Lily walked straight up to him and slapped him.

'How dare you! How _dare _you upset poor Daphne and Georgia like that!'

'Don't you care that I broke YOUR heart?'

'No, because you didn't.' Lily glances over catching sight of James, pretending to waltz around and having a laugh with Peter, the only other Marauder without a date. _We'll always have each other_, James had said. _He's such a good friend_! 'My heart was never yours to break.'

'So you wouldn't care if I went out with another girl?' he said sarcastically.

'On the contrary-I'd be delighted you puffed up, self-centred toad! I only said yes to you because I didn't want to upset you. And I'm sorry that I did because you've wasted my time. _Please_, you ugly, clumsy, elephantine git, go ruin someone else's life-poor girl, I feel sorry for her already. And you'll leave before the next dance, if you know what's good for you. I don't ever want to have to look at your ugly face again!'

Adam's expression was priceless. And he turned and left.

'Hey Lily, are you alright?' asked James, coming up behind her.

'Oh, yeah, I just got rid of that idiot,' she said cheerily.

'Well in that case,' grinned James, 'would you care to dance?'

'You know, I rather would!' said Lily in a funny posh accent, and they both laughed as he led her onto the dance floor.

As they danced around he said, 'You look beautiful. That dress really brings out your eyes.'

'And yours too!' she giggled.

As they danced, Lily told James the whole story of the idiotic Adam Gerdal.

'But why did you say your heart wasn't his to break?'

'Because it belongs to someone else,' she said, 'And I swear, James Potter, that I will love him forever.'

'Lily?' James's eyes meet hers and he whispers, 'You know I have always loved you, and I always will.'

'I know. And I love you just as much.' There is a silence.

James looks elated.

'Oh, and James?'

'Mm?'

'No boy I _know _is a better dancer than you, least of all _Adam Gerdal_!'

The rest of the time at Hogwarts was utter bliss. Like floating through the air on a cloud (in fact this was something the Seventh Years got to experience in Charms-but Sirius tried racing his cloud around and bashing into people, so there was much doubt as to whether it would be included in the Seventh Year curriculum ever again).

Lily and her friends decided to explore the Forbidden Forest one night, running into a herd of Centaurs, several strange, unidentified creatures, and a herd of unicorns, that guided them safely out of the Forest.

James took Lily down to the Quidditch pitch, and, holding firmly onto James's waist, Lily was flown around the Quidditch stadium, and, over time, learned to fly herself (the couple would often be seen from the topmost tower of the castle, down on the Quidditch pitch-or rather, flying up above the Quidditch pitch-flying after each other and flying through the scoring hoops.

Lily taught James to swim in the lake, and they managed to take on the Giant Squid, and come out on top (rather than sinking slowly to the lake's bottom).

James and Lily went to Hogsmeade together, read together, laughed together, they and all their friends talked in the Common Room for hours on end. Every Seventh Year seemed determined to enjoy their last few weeks at Hogwarts to its fullest. Pranks were rife, as was mischief, only heightened by the announcements that the Seventh Years were to experience two 'Play Up' days, in which they were allowed to play up and be as rude, as loud, as badly behaved as they liked (much to the teachers' and Mr Filch's dismay), and an 'Opposite Week' in which the students were supposed to be the opposite kind of student as they usually were. In other words, Lily, Jenny and Remus weren't actually allowed to hand homework in completed and on time, and Sirius James and Peter had to become the most perfect students Hogwarts had ever seen. In other words, that week did not go as planned in the case of Sirius James and Peter.

As Lily and James were walking through the castle together one day, they found themselves outside Professor Dumbledore's office.

'Shall we go up?' asked James, but Lily had already said 'Tongue-Dissolving Chewing Gum!' and was leaping up the revolving staircase.

Holding hands, they knocked timidly on the large door.

'Actually maybe we shouldn't…' began Lily.

'We should,' said James, 'Dumbledore would want a goodbye, come on Lils!'

She grinned at the nickname, so quickly adopted, as Dumbledore's voice said 'Enter.'

They marched through the door as it opened.

'Um, hello Professor…we've come to say goodbye,' said Lily.

'Have you indeed?' said Professor Dumbledore, his light blue eyes seeming to see right through her.

'Yes,' said James.

Professor Dumbledore's eyes darted to their joined hands, and he smiled.

'In fact, you were just the two people I was hoping to see,' said Dumbledore warmly. 'As you will know, Voldemort is gaining power.'

They both felt rather startled at this change of topic, and by Dumbledore's open way of speaking, but tried not to falter.

'Yes…' said Lily uncertainly.

'You will have heard, I hope, of The Order of the Pheonix?'

'Yes,' they both said in unison.

'Very good.' Said Dumbledore, 'I'd like you both to join.'

'WHAT?'

'Us?'

'You're joking!'

'I am not, Mr Potter. You have both proved yourselves many times over, and I would like you both to consider joining the Order-once you've left school of course, but that won't be too long now,' he looked rather melancholy, 'Of course I don't know what we'll do without your lively characters here at Hogwarts. But hopefully if you agree to join, we'll see more of you.'

'I'll join.' They said in unison.

'Again, it is entirely up to you, and please weigh up the risk involved, for it is quite large.

'I want to fight,' said Lily determined.

'Yeah, what she said,' said James.

Dumbledore smiled, 'I expected no less.'

He picked up a quill and, in an ornate list he wrote down _Lily and James Evans/Potter_.

But the highlight, by far, of the rather unusual happenings for the Seventh Years, was on the last night they would be staying at Hogwarts, it was announced that they would all be sleeping out in the grounds. Everyone from First Year to Sixth Year had left that morning on the train, but the Seventh Years had to have their Leaving Ceremony tomorrow.

As the whole of Seventh Year trouped out into the grounds, the silvery lake shining in the moonlight, the Forbidden Forest outlined sharply as the pinky-orange sunset lined the horizon, Lily's eyes travelled to the Quidditch pitch, now a place of happy memories and comfort, to the old beech tree she and James had sat under so often. Hogwarts would always be a truly special place.

Lily and James lay beside each other (though the boys and girls were supposed to be separate, nobody was really abiding by that rule), talking.

The stars winked down at them, and right there and then, they swore to always be there for each other, and to always love each other. Right until the very end. The brightest star, Sirius, the dog star, winked down at them knowingly. They would be together until the very end, come what may. That much was certain.

The next day, all the Seventh Years prepared for their leaving ceremony. They had no idea what would happen, but Professor McGonagall led them down to the water's edge, and there, bobbing on the lake, were hundreds of small boats. Lily remembered those boats-they'd crossed the lake in them in First Year.

They were told that the ceremony would be that they would each get into a boat, and, unaccompanied this time, cross the lake to the other side, signifying the end of their schooling at Hogwarts.

Lily was almost crying as she climbed into the little boat. This was the end. She'd never see Hogwarts again, never walk through the echoing halls and up the sweeping staircases, never use the enormous Prefects' Bathroom, never get her leg stuck in a trick-stair or have to argue with a painting to use the secret passage behind to get to class. She wouldn't have Peeves to throw bottles of ink at her, or Nearly Headless Nick to talk to, she'd never see the cheery Common Room, or see the girls she shared her dormitory with again.

'Hey,' said James, clambering into her little boat, as the fleet got ready to take off, 'Hey, hey, hey,' he said gently, 'this isn't the end. You'll still see these people. You won't go back to living like a muggle you know. You are a witch Lily Evans, and you've been exposed to our world now. There's no backing out now,' he said, grinning, and giving her a hug as the boats began to make their way across the lake.

Lily smiled, 'I s'pose you're right…how did you know?'

'I was thinking the same sort of thing. I'm sure we all are.'

Lily hugged him back.

'This is only the start of our lives Lily. And you'll always have me.'

'I'll always have you.'

'This isn't the end,' said James.

'You know,' said Lily, watching as along the opposite bank, a crowd of their families stood, waving and smiling. Lily saw her parents, deep waving cheerily at her, deep in conversation with a brown haired, kind faced woman that Lily recognised as James's mother. They seemed to be getting on quite well. Lily smiled and put her arms around James's neck, and he kissed her forehead. 'I think you might be right.'


End file.
